AUGUSTA — A group whose members have been affected by severe mental illness in their families said an under-utilized program might have helped avert last October's mass shooting in Lewiston.
Members of the National Shattering Silence Coalition are asking the commission investigating last October's mass shooting to take a closer look at the program, which has been on the books in Maine for 20 years but they said is underfunded.
Under a "progressive treatment program," or PTP, the head of a psychiatric hospital, a doctor or a police officer can ask the courts to order someone to undergo mental health treatment. The program is aimed at people who pose a "likelihood of serious harm" to themselves or others but are unlikely to voluntarily follow a treatment plan.
John Nutting, a former state lawmaker from Leeds who helped create the law 20 years ago, said Friday that those criteria clearly applied to the Lewiston gunman, Robert Card, and other recent homicides committed by people with mental illness.
"So our question is, how much longer, how many more cases is going to go on where people don't receive the care they need and they commit a homicide and then the plead not criminally responsible?" Nutting said during a State House press conference. "And once they plead not criminally responsible, then they are put on the PTP plan — only after that."
As part of a PTP, a judge can require someone to temporarily relinquish their guns. Since the October 25th shooting that left 18 dead and 13 injured, the commission has focused — among other things — on why Maine's so-called "yellow flag" law was not used to force Card to give up his guns as family, friends and fellow Army Reservists became increasingly concerned about his paranoia and access to firearms.
But Nutting and coalition members argue that the PTP program could have accomplished the same result while compelling Card to receive treatment. Card was instructed to follow-up with treatment as part of his discharge from a New York psychiatric hospital three months before the shooting but he apparently never did after returning to Maine.
"As all of us who have experienced, keep living with or being around people with serious brain disorders, we know that to only consider removing Mr. Card's guns is short-sighted and only minimally addresses a complex and much larger issue," said Laura Snyder, a coalition member with a family member in the PTP program.
Coalition members argue that one problem is that police and mental health professionals in Maine are not aware of or trained in the use of the program. So they are urging the Mills administration to seek a Medicaid waiver that would open the door to additional federal funding to support the PTP and related programs.
But the program has been opposed or criticized by organizations that advocate for people with mental illness. They argue that the program can lead to coerced treatment and eventually involuntary commitment or institutionalization if the person does not comply.
Disability Rights Maine has also raised alarms about the 2018 death of a man enrolled in PTP who was found dead in his apartment after providers reduced his supervision to every half hour, even though a plan had called for it to be 24/7.
"If people are going to use it, there's gotta be some oversight about these providers who are providing the service — because it's involuntary, because you're being committed to that service," Mark Joyce, director of the mental health program at Disability Rights Maine, told Maine Public last November after Nutting and coalition members held another press conference on the issue.
In a statement, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services said the department "has implemented the Progressive Treatment Program in accordance with the law. DHHS is deeply committed to working with law enforcement and the broader medical and behavioral health community to support individuals with complex mental health needs and to protect the safety and well-being of Maine people."
