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June 2023 MPS Psychiatry and Law Committee 

The Psychiatry and Law Committee had a very busy season this year. This month, on June 5, we had a joint session with the Consult Liaison Committee on Guardianship with Lisa Lovett, who runs the guardianship service at MGH and with Jhilam Biswas, the forensic psychiatry liaison on the C/L service at Brigham. We discussed the process of guardianship in the hospital, when to involve the courts, when to consider healthcare proxies and what a Guardianship service actually is. 

On March 13, MPS Psychiatry & Law had a joint meeting with the Public Sector Committee on exploring the history, present use, and possible future changes to Massachusetts involuntary commitment statute Section 12. The talk covered the legal framework including current statute language, regulations, and relevant case law. We discussed COVID and current workforce capacity challenges with ED boarding and talked about potential solutions to current challenges.  

In November and December, we also worked together as a committee to discuss with Lisa Simonetti on upcoming legislative priorities.  Lisa Simonetti provided a legislative update, and we had a brainstorming session on ideas of what more needs to be done legislatively to improve mental healthcare in MA. The Section 12 Commission and other filings resulted from this meeting. 

We want to thank our wonderful resident Co-Chair, Celeste Peay as she heads off to a C/L Fellowship in California. Congratulations!