If mental health is the concern, vote yes on Question 2

By David Moltz

David Moltz is a psychiatrist with more than 30 years of experience working in Maine in both general psychiatry and addiction. He resides in Portland.

As a retired psychiatrist with 30 years of experience practicing in Maine, I’ve seen many patients in crisis and treated patients with a wide variety of mental health diagnoses.

I’ve also seen firsthand how critical family members are at every stage of the process — from getting a loved one help, sometimes when the loved one doesn’t recognize that something is wrong, to supporting their treatment.

These 30 years of experience lead me to unequivocally support a “yes” vote on Question 2 this November to pass an extreme risk protection order law in Maine, to save lives and help prevent another tragedy like Lewiston.

This would empower families or law enforcement to go directly to a court when a person is in crisis and, if the court finds the person poses a danger to themselves or others, temporarily limit their access to firearms. Maine’s current law — while its title was changed last year to an “extreme risk protection order” — doesn’t work like a true extreme risk protection order nor is it recognized as one by groups like Johns Hopkins or the National Sheriffs Association.

I’ve diagnosed and treated many hundreds of patients with mental illness, so it may come as a surprise that I believe the current requirement of a mental health evaluation in Maine’s current “yellow flag” law is ineffective, a waste of time and a terrible way to determine whether or not someone poses a threat to themselves or others. I’m not the only one — the Maine Association of Psychiatric Physicians and the Behavioral Health Community Collaborative have endorsed Yes on Question 2.

Continue reading here at Bangor Daily News.