Judge Milton Mack

We have about 100 mediators who are trained in mental health issues to mediate these disputes.

If you're going to mediate an agreement with someone who has a mental illness, you have engagement.

You have the likelihood of compliance.

I have four bills pending in the legislature right now.

They have passed the Senate around the floor of the House as we speak.

I might get attempts any minute now from Senator Hurtado telling me we got them all done.

The bills I had introduced expand mediation so that providers of care will have a better option.

The providers of care don't like to petition their clients for treatment.

They'll certainly take advantage of mediation.

They'll see if their client is beginning to decompensate.

And before it gets too bad, it's going to get mediation.

We are trying to make the process work better.

So we still have some blockages.

For example, if I want someone to get outpatient treatment only, I have to have a psychiatrist testify.

If I want them to be hospitalized, a psychologist can testify.

To me, it would seem that the higher-ranking medical person ought to be talking about hospitalization.

and a lower echelon person talking about outpatient treatment.

There's been tremendous resistance to these outpatient treatment orders.

What did you think was going to happen when you emptied the hospitals?

What are you going to do with individuals who had to be hospitalized before?