Posts
Sen. Mitch Tropila, D-Great Falls, sponsored Senate Bill 221, which was tabled last week in the House Judiciary Committee. “I was pretty disappointed because I worked hard on the bill,” he said.
The bill, which passed the Senate by a vote of 33-17, would have considered companion animal hoarding as possessing 20 or more pets and failing to provide necessary care for those animals in a severely crowded environment.
But it also would have required anyone convicted of the crime to undergo psychological examination and treatment, at the person’s expense. It was that controversial provision, more than any other concern, that led to the bill's death, Tropila said.
“The mental health community was worried that the bill would be making criminals out of people with mental disabilities,” Tropila said.
-by CNS reporter Shanda Bradshaw
Since treatment for hoarding behaviors involves lengthy cognitive behavioral therapy, and must begin with a therapist being first able to establish a relationship of trust with an individual, it is often too expensive for the disabled person to afford. Also, the act of forcing someone with this disorder into treatment is actually counterproductive to gaining their cooperation - without it, they are doomed to failure anyway. That doesn't mean that people shouldn't continue to seek solutions. Several communities in Massachusetts (Newton, Gloucester, Beverly) have formed "Hoarding Task Forces" to help centralize information and access to resources. Maybe it's time for Montana to start some similar groups and become better educated on the nature of the problem before attempting to legislate.
ReplyDelete