Mental Health Matters

The newsletter of the ISBA’s Mental Health Law Section

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2015 Articles

The 2015 Health Care Power of Attorney Act and Form: Mental health perspective deficiencies By Daniel G. Deneen May 2015 The author argues that Illinois' new Health Care Power of Attorney form contains objectionable flaws.
Appellate update By Andreas Liewald April 2015 Recent cases that have survived the courts' mootness analysis.
Competitive, integrated employment: The next step in achieving community integration for people with disabilities By Cheryl R. Jansen December 2015 While it is important to celebrate the advances made by people with disabilities since the ADA was passed, it is equally important to examine what remains to be done.
Editor’s note By Sandra Blake April 2015 An introduction to the issue from Editor Sandra Blake.
How to properly issue subpoenas for mental health records By Scott D. Hammer May 2015 Since attorneys can be successfully sued for failing to follow Section 10(d) of the Confidentiality Act, it would be in every attorney’s best interest to learn and comply with the necessary requirements before issuing a subpoena for mental health records.
Illinois Supreme Court Rules on commitment, medication cases By Barbara Goeben April 2015 Cases of interest to mental health law practitioners.
Letter from the Chair By Barbara Goeben December 2015 A message from Section Chair Barbara Goeben.
Letter from the Chair By Scott D. Hammer March 2015 An introduction to the issue from Section Chair Scott D. Hammer.
The living room alternative to ER visits for mentally ill patients in crisis By Susan O’Neal December 2015 As lawyers, we should be interested in the Living Room concept because it potentially represents the most humane and least restrictive means of defusing a mental health crisis.
Mental health legislation adopted by the Illinois Legislature in 2014 By Mark Heyrman March 2015 During its 2014 session, the Illinois legislature enacted a number of provisions affecting persons with mental illnesses. This article summarizes the most important of these.
Parent with developmental disability discriminated against by Massachusetts in violation of ADA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act By Patti Werner June 2015 To permit termination of parental rights based on the “inability to discharge parental duties,” without identifying those duties or defining how they are measured, invites the same kinds of presumptions and stereotypes that the DOJ and HHS found violated the ADA in the Massachusetts case.
Reporting under FOID Act By Joseph T. Monahan June 2015 Attorneys representing physicians, hospitals, therapists and other medical and mental health practitioners must be aware of the requirements under the Act to properly advise their clients as to how to satisfy their duty to report.
Requirement that parents relinquish custody of their children in order to get mental health services addressed by new state law By Patricia A. Werner March 2015 For decades, Illinois parents who could not afford intensive mental health services for their child had two options: deny the child needed mental health services or give custody to the Department of Children and Family Services so the child could receive the necessary treatment. A new law that became effective on January 1, 2015 aims to resolve this issue.
Sharing mental health records in Illinois: An overview of confidentiality concerns By Dara M. Bass June 2015 Highlights from the Section's April 10th CLE program.
Some new (and old) ways to fix the mental health system in Illinois By Meryl Sosa & Mark J. Heyrman March 2015 Hospital emergency rooms throughout Illinois, and across the country, increasingly encounter the problem of "psychiatric boarding"—caring for patients with significant mental health issues in the hospital’s emergency department while waiting for an inpatient hospital bed or transfer to another inpatient facility. This article examines this problem and offers some ways to address it.