Catholic Bishops: NY Safe Act Gun Reporting Rules Threaten Services for Mentally Ill
Times Union; Casey Seiler, 2/6/2014
New York’s Catholic bishops supported the year-old NY SAFE Act gun control law, but they are worried that the more stringent reporting standard it requires for mental health professionals will cause people to avoid seeking help.
The previous standard required mental health providers to report an individual who posed an “imminent threat” to himself or others. The NY SAFE Act, however, requires reporting if a patient “is likely to engage in conduct that would result in serious harm to self or others.”
That determination could lead local officials to confiscate firearms owned by the person whose mental status is questioned, as well as to suspend a pistol permit until he or she is given a clean bill of health.
“Providers fear that this lower standard will discourage individuals from getting the help they need, out of fear of being reported,” reads the policy proposal sheet released by the state Catholic Conference. “Without mental health services, a mentally ill person with violent tendencies may not get the medication or therapy he or she needs that would prevent such incidents in the first place.
The bishops recommend changing the law to return the state to the “imminent danger” threshold. The group also wants to see any records of previous mental health hospitalization expunged “sooner than the five years in current law, also with the goal of reducing barriers to persons seeking treatment.”
The policy proposals accompanied a pastoral letter on the challenge of caring for the mentally ill, titled “For I Am Lonely and Afflicted,” that was released Thursday.
The federal Veterans Administration has similar problems with the law’s reporting requirements, which it rejected last year as too likely to drive people away from mental health care.
Amendments to this portion of the still-controversial act — or any other part of the law — aren’t currently being considered.
A spokesman for Gov. Andrew Cuomo had no comment.
http://m.timesunion.com/local/article/Catholic-bishops-NY-Safe-Act-gun-reporting-rules-5212599.php