Working Together to Make the Mental Health Code Work, Chapter 4
Working Together to Make the Mental Health Code Work, Chapter 4 – Civil Admission and Discharge Procedures for Adults with Mental Illness, A Community Approach in Saginaw, Michigan
September 9, 2021
The Saginaw County Community Mental Health Authority has created a new video production with an accompanying slide deck, for the training of involved professionals in the Civil Admission and Discharge Procedures in Chapter 4 of the Michigan Mental Health Code for adults with mental illness. The one-hour video provides training content on legal procedures and their execution in Saginaw County under the jurisdiction of the Saginaw County Probate Court. These procedures involve the involuntary restrictions to the personal liberties of citizens for defined periods of time to ensure their safety and the safety of others in their family, social network and the community at large, while facilitating active treatment for their mental illness.
The purpose for the video production and the accompanying slide deck, is to provide a single comprehensive training resource for local partner agencies directly involved in these procedures. It is designed to also inform other behavioral health professionals working with individuals with mental illness in treatment relationships or other supervising roles, to promote their clear understanding of their individual responsibilities as well as lend broader information and context for these probate court procedures.
The video content is delivered by the community partners to the probate court in their essential roles as judge, prosecutor, community mental health, hospital emergency care centers, law enforcement, psychiatry and other behavioral health providers with expert knowledge and first-hand accounts of circumstances prompting the need for probate procedures to direct citizens with mental illness to inpatient psychiatric admission and outpatient treatment as needed under court supervision.
There are unique aspects as to how these procedures are performed in Saginaw County as described by the professionals in the video, but largely the processes as prescribed in Chapter 4 of the Michigan Mental Health Code are the same across the State of Michigan. The Saginaw County Community Mental Health Authority has therefore posted the video and accompanying slide deck containing the requisite court forms which guide and inform the proceedings, to their website for use by other jurisdictions in Michigan at no cost.
We wish to express our thanks to our local community partners for their participation in the video, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services for the federal Adult Block Grant funding to support it, experts that provided consultation named at the end of the video and Olmsted Associates for filming and production assistance.
Sandra M. Lindsey, CEO Honorable Patrick McGraw, Chief Probate Judge
Saginaw County Community 10th Circuit Court, Saginaw County, MI
Mental Health Authority