Preliminary Commission on Mental Health Law Reform (CMHLR, Commission) Meeting re: Commission Formation: October 12-13, 2006, 2006

These files complement previous documents related to his work in mental health law internationally and in the United States. The majority of the files pertain documents from the GIP [Geneva Initiative on Psychiatry] work on former Soviet republics and the Network of Reformers in Psychiatry files. We also received miscellaneous professional files, clients files [restricted], correspondence files, and University of Virginia and Law School Files and the Commission on Mental Health Reform in Virginia.

In October 2006, Chief Justice Leroy Hassell of the Virginia Supreme Court established the Commission for Mental Health Law Reform in the state of Virginia. Richard Bonnie, the Harrison Foundation Professor of Medicine and Law at the University of Virginia Law School was selected by Chief Justice Hassell to chair the commission. The Commission is funded by the Virginia Supreme Court and is supported through research initiatives from the Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation, and Substance Abuse Services. Beginning in 2001 and predating the establishment of the Commission, Professor Richard Bonnie began work with the MacArthur Research Network on issues related to and funding for mental health law reform. During the years 2001-2005, Bonnie became a key figure in Chief Justice Hassell’s plans to establish a commission for mental health law reform in the state of Virginia. Once the Commission was established in 2006, between 2006-2008 it consisted of five task forces designed to address key problems in mental health law in the state of Virginia, including: access to services, empowerment and self-determination, involuntary civil commitment, special needs of children and adolescents, and the relation between mental health and criminal justice systems. In addition to these task forces, a working group on health privacy and civil commitment was established in 2007. In 2008, the General Assembly of the state of Virginia enacted a reform for the commitment laws, and three additional task forces were created to ensure implementation, to deal with advance directive issues, and to attend to future commitment reforms. The following archive includes meeting notes, textual research, correspondence, presentations, conference materials, empirical studies, and legislative bill tracking undertaken by these task forces and working groups, all under the supervision of Professor Richard Bonnie. The archive also contains papers and correspondence predating the establishment of the Commission but related to its founding. In addition to the official correspondence and other materials collected here, the archive also contains the personal notes and data collected by Bonnie between the years 2001-2010.