A bill which would have let a judge intervene when someone fails to take their medication for a mental illness failed in the House. Representative Keith Kreiman (kry’-mun), a democrat from Bloomfield, says it loosened the rules for civil committment of the mentally ill in such cases.In a recent case in Des Moines, a man who failed to take his medication for a mental disorder ran a stop sign and killed another man. Kreiman says if the bill had been law, a court could have sent Dale Ellis to a physician or out-patient program to get him back on his meds. In severe cases, a judge could force patients to take their medication under supervision.Kreiman says current law sets a very high standard for civil committment so that mental patients just beginning to go off their medication cannot be forced into treatment.
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