RICHMOND — The General Assembly voted unanimously today to approve a package of bills intended to reform Virginia’s mental health system and fill gaps exposed by April's shootings at Virginia Tech.

The slate of bills was approved 99-0 in the House of Delegates and 40-0 in the Senate.

The legislation would ease Virginia's standard for involuntary commitment and improve monitoring of individuals under outpatient commitment orders. It further defines the roles of several different mental health providers, authorizes them to share information and allows the extension of emergency custody orders from four to six hours.

“This is actually kind of exciting because everyone is in agreement,” said Sen. Janet Howell, D-Fairfax County, who sponsored the Senate version of the bill.

Legislators also added a last-minute clause to get around the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The language provides that court orders placing individuals in treatment also provide for disclosure of relevant medical information.

The bill does limit the release to “information necessary to protect the officer, the person or the public from physical injury to protect the health care needs of the person.” It also provides the information will not be further disseminated or retained for future use.

“There’s no question by anybody in the field at this point that the language in these bills complies with HIPAA,” said Sen. Ken Cuccinelli, R-Fairfax County.

Gov. Tim Kaine included about $42 million for mental health reform in his proposed budget. That money was largely retained in both the Senate and House budget proposals.
Kaine said he reserves the right to amend the bills when they get to his desk. But he said lawmakers demonstrated "a great willingness" to address needs identified in the aftermath of the shootings. Specifically, Kaine said, lawmakers have shown support for increasing spending on community mental health services, demanding better accountability and oversight, and changing commitment standards.

"In each of the three areas, they've made real progress in a bipartisan way," Kaine said. "And hey, let's say it, in a very tough budget year they've done a good thing to tackle those three issues. That's important."

A state panel investigating the shootings at Virginia Tech found gunman Seung-Hui Cho entered the university with a mental disorder that Tech officials knew nothing about. The university and the state’s mental health system compounded the problem by not ensuring that Cho received needed services and not adequately sharing information about behavior that raised concern.

The panel’s report said narrow interpretations of federal privacy laws and liability concerns limited the information that Tech officials and the university’s counseling center shared about Cho’s behavior. His parents were not notified when female students filed complaints about Cho’s behavior in the fall of 2005, nor were they told when he was temporarily detained in a behavioral health facility after a roommate reported he might be suicidal.

After the detention, Cho was ordered by a judge in December 2005 to receive outpatient treatment, but that order was never followed up.

The state panel and advocates say Cho’s case — and its murderous climax — exposed gaps in a state mental health system that’s overburdened and under-funded.