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Committee hears calls to modernize and enforce psychiatric 'fundamental rights' including cellphones, email and independent investigators
Summary
Advocates, peers and legal groups urged the committee to update Massachusetts' six "fundamental rights" for people in psychiatric hospitals and DMH-funded settings to include private access to personal devices, email, broader visitation, gender‑relevant care and an independent complaints process with modest penalties.
Legislators and people with lived experience urged the Joint Committee to update and strengthen the state’s "fundamental rights" for psychiatric patients so those rights reflect modern communications, ensure gender‑appropriate care and create enforceable remedies.
Representative Higgins, an original sponsor of the modernization bill, told the committee the package would "modernize communication access to include email," expand access to gender‑appropriate facilities and personal care products, clarify who may visit and create an accountability process. Lived‑experience witnesses described being denied private communications and visits and…
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