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Judge and advocates testify on mental‑health code update; witnesses urge safeguards, lived‑experience input
Summary
Judge Milton Mack and multiple advocates testified in favor of House bills 4412–4414 to modernize Michigan’s mental health code, emphasizing earlier intervention and assisted outpatient treatment; advocates urged clarified guardrails, inclusion of guardians and peers, and oversight of hospital practices.
Witnesses told the House Health Policy Committee that House bills 4412–4414 would modernize Michigan’s mental health code to permit earlier intervention, expand who may conduct evaluations in limited circumstances, and broaden tools such as assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) and mediation.
Judge Milton Mack, a retired Wayne County probate judge and chair of the Mental Health Diversion Council, described the bills as aimed at "reducing barriers in treatment for people with serious mental illness and promote recovery while reducing the use of emergency departments, hospitalization, incarceration, and homelessness." He cited county outcomes saying Calhoun County saw hospitalization fall and arrests drop among a small cohort ordered into AOT, and said Genesee County’s larger program…
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