mandating vaccines, or the next step was to force people to have vaccines, which is absolutely not in the bill or in the intent of the bill.”
VETO POWER EXERCISED Of Governor Abbott’s vetoes during his first legislative session as Texas’ chief executive, perhaps none sur- prised TMA members more than his decision to nix Senate Bill 359 by Sen. Royce West (D-Dallas). SB 359 would have authorized in- patient mental health facilities, hos- pitals, their emergency departments, and freestanding emergency medical facilities to allow physicians to detain a person who voluntarily requested treatment if the physician believes the person has a mental illness and is dangerous to self or others. The facil- ity could hold the person for no more than four hours from the time the person either attempted to leave or expressed a desire to leave. Les Secrest, MD, chair of TMA’s
Task Force on Behavioral Health, says the usual way to detain such a patient — getting the facility’s on-site peace officer to do it — can become compli- cated in many settings. (See “Protect- ing Patients, Society,” November 2013 Texas Medicine, pages 29–32, or visit
www.texmed.org/ProtectingPatients Society.) “Originally, giving peace officers that ability was to be able to allow them to intervene in situations where they could see clearly that this is bi- zarre and makes no sense — some- body walking down the middle of the highway inappropriately dressed or these sorts of things,” Dr. Secrest said. “Those become much more obvious sorts of situations.” Currently, however, he says that unless a patient has broken the law, peace officers often feel they can’t or shouldn’t intervene. Temple emergency physician Rob-
ert Greenberg, MD, says the law is an- tiquated in assuming any patient with mental illness needs inpatient care. “I personally and professionally
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