Judge Milton Mack

You know, there is power of attorneys which can be used for mental health.

And for those people, you can say, look, while you're competent to make decisions, you can put off this power of attorney and you can define who is going to be your care provider and you can define what kind of treatment you'll accept.

And you can take yourself out.

Now, that'll take yourself out to a point.

It won't take you out in case you become violent and actually dangerous to other people.

It'll take you out of here at risk of harm.

Now, there's someone in the Carolinas that's come up with that form, but it hasn't worked so far.

You know, I want to get back to something.

I want to get back to something Linda said about the college can't tell the parents about the mental health crisis.

I assume that's not because of HIPAA.

It must be because of something else.

It's a bad law.

So we're in Michigan.

One of our bills, which everyone's supporting, would mandate that hospitals can share information with families in the event of an emergency or for continuity of care.

And because our Michigan statute is focused more on history than what's happening right now, that history becomes very important.

So it's incumbent upon hospitals now to reach back to find out from families what's been going on and what's the history.

Well, I'm on the civil justice side.

And so I would urge policymakers across the country to adopt the four principles adopted by the National Judicial Task Force back in 2022.

That begins with first, having earlier intervention.

before someone is in crisis, before someone needs hospitalization.