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Mental Health And The Law: Where Necessity Is The Mother Of Invention (Patent Pending), William W. Wood

Northern Illinois University Law Review

Mental health professionals, most notably the psychiatrists and other clinicians who work in the State of Illinois Operated Inpatient Psychiatric Treatment Facilities, are often frustrated by an inability to treat individuals who have been admitted to the state hospital. Recent changes to the Illinois Mental Health Code have made admission, but not treatment, easier for persons who have a severe mental illness. As treatment innovations develop, the interface of the legal system with the mental health system becomes increasingly important in balancing the often seemingly disparate and opposing goals of both treating persons with mental illnesses and ensuring that their …