Advocates tell State House committee to center lived experience and fund community mental-health supports, not expanded inpatient beds

Two witnesses who identified themselves as people with lived experience urged the State House Committee on Health Care to prioritize community-based, peer-led mental health services and to resist proposals to expand inpatient or forensic facilities.

"This was punishment masquerading as care," said Naila Raminski, a patient representative with Mad Freedom Advocates, describing years she spent involuntarily institutionalized and the restraints and forced treatments she said she experienced. Raminski told the committee that people with lived experience should be centered in policymaking and criticized a working-group bill she referred to as H. 764 for requiring only one member with lived experience.

The witnesses framed their testimony around the Olmstead decision and civil-rights protections. "Olmstead affirmed that people have the right to receive services in the most community-integrating setting appropriate," Raminski said, adding that unnecessary institutionalization constitutes discrimination. She named recent deaths to underline the stakes: "This past July, Scott Garvey was killed by Vermont State Police in his own home during a mental health crisis," she said, describing the incident as an example of how relying on law enforcement in crises can increase harm.

Lindsay Saint Amour, executive director of Disability Rights Vermont, described her agency's oversight role and urged lawmakers to ask more questions before approving new institutional capacity. "We are 90% federally funded to investigate serious rights violations, abuse, and neglect," Saint Amour said, explaining the organization's authority to access treatment settings and monitor conditions. She argued that many existing beds and units are underused and that the state should invest in staffing and therapeutic programming before building new facilities.

Both witnesses urged lawmakers to back voluntary community alternatives. Raminski recommended passage of legislation cited in testimony that would expand peer respites (identified in remarks as H227, sponsored in testimony by Representative Bosland) and a mental-health peer-to-peer pilot for youth (cited as H17). She described peer respites as "voluntary nonclinical spaces where people can receive support without fear of involuntary commitment or forced treatment," and said research and lived experience show such programs reduce hospitalizations and costs.

Legislators asked how the state should respond to people who are justice-involved or adjudicated incompetent to stand trial. Witnesses said the state can pursue both goals: maintain appropriate capacity for those who need secure care while simultaneously investing in prevention and voluntary supports to reduce crisis escalation. Saint Amour noted that statutory mechanisms already exist for hospital-level care when someone is a danger to themselves or others, but she stressed that expanding voluntary supports and improving direct-care pay would reduce reliance on restrictive settings.

The witnesses asked to provide more detailed feedback on bills that sit in other committees (testimony referenced bills identified as H860 and H814) and offered to return with additional information. No formal votes or motions were recorded during the testimony.

The committee did not take action at the hearing; witnesses and legislators agreed to follow up with written materials and additional testimony as bills advance.