Disability Rights Vermont urges narrow expansion to allow ED physician assistants to make initial psychiatric certifications

BURLINGTON, Vt. — Disability Rights Vermont told the House Health Committee on Feb. 26 that it supports H 573’s effort to expand who may perform the initial certification for involuntary psychiatric holds, provided the change is narrowly limited to physician assistants working in hospital emergency departments and accompanied by procedural safeguards.

"I am Lindsay St. Amour, formerly Owen. I am the executive director at Disability Rights Vermont," said St. Amour, who testified as the group’s executive director and a practicing attorney. She argued that allowing emergency-department physician assistants to perform the first certification would often move people through the statutory timelines faster and reduce the period in which patients can be held in limbo in emergency departments.

The proposal addresses a recurring problem St. Amour described: individuals in psychiatric…