The Missouri Department of Mental Health (DMH) has merged the two St. Louis adult psychiatric hospitals into one entity called the St. Louis Forensic Treatment Center. One is the former St. Louis Metropolitan Psychiatric Center on Delmar; the other is the former St. Louis Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center on Arsenal.
Both facilities have a long history of handling involuntarily committed individuals from the criminal justice system.
By combining the two hospitals for a total of 230 patient beds, the department hopes to be able to take advantage of natural efficiencies across both campuses.
They claim to reintegrate individuals into the community, but in the case of Sex Offender Rehabilitation and Treatment Services (SORTS), individuals are involuntarily committed for the rest of their lives after having completed their prison terms.
The DMH budget for 2020-2021 is approximately $2.4 Billion. Roughly $36.8 Million from General Revenue is allocated to the SORTS program. Roughly $30.5 Million from General Revenue is allocated to the two St. Louis adult psychiatric hospitals. This does not include any Federal funds or State funds other than General Revenue.
The MO DMH Division of Behavioral Health (DBH) operates six adult inpatient facilities and one children’s psychiatric hospital. The two forensic hospitals under discussion are in this Division.
Involuntary Commitment: A Crack In The Door Of Constitutional Freedoms
Every 1¼ minutes, someone in the U.S. becomes the next victim of involuntary incarceration in a psychiatric hospital. Because of their ubiquity and far–reaching powers, involuntary commitment laws lay a truly concrete foundation for totalitarianism. And they are not, it must be stressed, a threat of what might be, but a present danger — representing America’s gaping breach in the otherwise admirable wall of individual Constitutional rights.
While involuntary commitment laws enrich the psychiatric industry, they not only deprive individuals of their freedom of choice, but milk millions of health insurance dollars annually from private, state, national and military health plans.
Involuntary commitment creates an astonishing debt load on our health care system. Given a very conservative daily cost of $940 for hospitalization and treatment, each involuntary commitment costs around $16,700. With up to 1.5 million people committed yearly, and using the conservative individual figure of $16,700, the annual health care drain is almost $25 billion! And this is paying for a service that most would refuse if given the chance.
The Missouri Revised Statutes (RSMo) Chapter 552 Section 20, Chapter 632 Section 300, Chapter 632 Section 305, Chapter 632 Section 484, and Chapter 660 Section 290 specify the conditions under which, and by whom, someone can be forcibly incarcerated in a mental health facility. It isn’t always called “involuntary commitment”; other euphemisms are “detention” or “civil commitment”.
The fact that these actions are couched in such Orwellian doublespeak as “for his own good,” “to prevent him from committing harm,” etc., is unfortunate, for it obfuscates the intention, which is undeniably to harm instead of help.
The first thing to realize is that if mental asylums were places of rest, where people did not fear to seek help, knowing they would not be assaulted with restraints, drugs and electric shock — but where they could receive real medical help — people would be more approachable about being helped.
The dangerous person who is violent must be dealt with independent of psychiatrists. If a dangerous offense is committed by a person, then the fact remains criminal statutes exist to address this. As the late psychiatrist Thomas Szasz stated, “All criminal behavior should be controlled by means of the criminal law, from the administration of which psychiatrists ought to be excluded.”
What Must Be Done?
First there needs to be an increase in humane and rational alternatives to psychiatric involuntary institutionalization.
Second, involuntary commitment laws must be abolished and this unconstitutional and coercive practice stopped.
Third, any psychiatrist found to be using coercion, threats or malice to get people to “accept” psychiatric treatment, or who hospitalizes a patient against their will should be charged with assault and false imprisonment.
Take the initiative today towards achieving human rights in this country and contact your local, state, and federal officials to have these oppressive commitment laws abolished.
CCHR recommends that citizens execute a Living Will, or Letter of Protection from Psychiatric Incarceration and/or Treatment, which directs that psychiatric incarceration, hospitalization, treatment or procedures not be imposed on you.
