EXTENDED CIVIL COMMITMENT FOR DANGEROUS PSYCHIATRIC-PATIENTS

Mental health clinicians are increasingly held civilly liable for the dangerous acts of their psychiatric patients. One area of liability is the negligent release of involuntarily committed patients who engage in dangerous acts after their hospital discharge, All states have prov isions for extended involuntary commitment for mentally ill dangerous patients. We examined extended civil commitment petitions in Los Angel es County, California, and found that the great majority were rejected , While the standard for extended civil commitment in California inclu des verbal threats of substantial physical harm, deputy district attor neys tended to reject petitions initiated by clinicians when verbal th reats were the sole criterion of dangerousness. This tendency by deput y district attorneys can be quite confusing for clinicians, Mental hea lth professionals' liability has sensitized them to the legal implicat ions of patients' verbal threats of harm; attorneys do not incur the s ame legal liability and are not so sensitized.