Mental Health and Law with Bob Fleischner

Before the 1960s, the law and courts pretty much ignored people with mental and cognitive disabilities. About the only laws that referenced them at all were those that took away their liberty — for instance, civil commitment to mental hospitals or “state schools,” guardianship and the insanity defense. The civil rights movement and the Supreme Court’s criminal justice reforms had a significant impact on the mental disability law. The last 50 or so years have seen monumental changes in the way people with mental disabilities were treated by the law and by society in general. This brief review will highlight the changes to the law and their impacts on civil commitment, criminal justice, institurionalization, guardianship and discrimination.

Hosted by Nonotuck Resource Associates Diversity and Inclusion Committee