Streicher v. Zanni

No. SP 1598-83 (D.C. Super. Ct. July 12, 1996). ; Clearinghouse Number: 42913

Description

Court Orders Psychiatric Hospital to Review Involuntarily Committed Patients’ Status

Abstract

The court has held that the District of Columbia Mental Health Commission has violated plaintiff patients’ rights to receive periodic review of their involuntary commitment. Plaintiffs, a class of persons involuntarily committed to a hospital, alleged that the review procedures of the District’s civil commitment statute, known as the Ervin Act, were constitutionally inadequate. The Ervin Act entitles noncriminal patients to have their involuntary status reviewed at least every six months, automatically by hospital staff and individually at the patient’s request. The court found that 84 percent of a randomly selected sample of 69 patients had not received the required reviews. Finding that hospital staff had ignored the Ervin Act’s requirements on a continual basis, the court ordered the hospital to provide all involuntarily committed patients a periodic review by November 1, 1996. It ordered defendant to give, upon admission, written and oral notice to involuntarily committed patients and their families of their right to review, as well as notice, at least seven days in advance, of impending reviews. Patients, their family, and counsel should be allowed to participate in the review process; patients should be given a written copy of the results within a reasonable period of time thereafter and should be permitted to challenge them. And the hospital should maintain accurate and comprehensive records of periodic reviews.

Additional Information

Attorney Information
Plaintiffs represented by Claudia Schlosberg, Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, 1101 15th St., NW, Suite 1212, Washington DC 20005, (202) 467-5730; George Miller, Catherine Pinkerton, Harry Fulton.
Docket Date
1996-07-12 00:00:00+00:00