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Forty-two states allow assisted outpatient treatment - court-ordered treatment in the community. Connecticut is one of only eight states that does not permit the use of this valuable treatment mechanism.

Recent news

PREVENTABLE TRAGEDIES The Preventable Tragedies database includes summaries of news articles of which an individual with a neurobiological brain disorder (usually untreated) is involved in a violent episode, either as a victim or perpetrator. Search for Connecticut episodes by choosing CT in the drop down box.

History

NEWS Michael Ouellette, interviewed from prison, notes "I didn't know I had the illness. I thought everything was real." Tom Lysz, the brother of the man Ouellette murdered, Rev. Robert J. Lysz, said this: "I think it's a sad commentary on society when you have to have somebody murdered in order to find out [they] needs medication and attention ... It's sort of like, let's see if 10 people have to die and then put up a railroad crossing. It's the same kind of stupidity." 
Hartford Courant, August 25, 2002 (Please visit the paper's web site for the full text of the information.)

NEWS Michael Ouellette was sentenced to 60 years in prison for the 1999 murder of the Rev. Robert J. Lysz. Ouellette has a history of mental illness and was off his medicine at the time of the murder. "Richard Ouellette, of New Jersey, apologized for his son's actions on behalf of his wife, Sandra, and himself. He spoke briefly of the couple's struggles to help their son stay sane by getting psychiatric help and medication. It was a losing battle, Richard Ouellette said, made impossible by medical and criminal justice systems that often do little to help mentally ill people until they commit some terrible act.It's sad, Ouellette said, that Michael is now the most rational he's been in a decade."
Hartford Courant, January 17, 2002 (Please visit the paper's web site for the full text of the information.)

OPED Lacking reason, options, action - Connecticut's laws claim another life. Debbie Hall's son is accused of her murder - if a law had been passed after the Lysz killing, perhaps she'd be alive today.
Hartford Courant, Nov. 2, 2001

LEGISLATION On May 3, 2000, legislation proposed by Rep. Roger B. Michele was unanimously approved by the House of Representatives and Senate as part of the state public health implementation bill. The legislation was in response to the June 25, 1999, murder of Reverend Robert Lysz by Michael L. Ouellette, a man with severe mental illness. The original legislation would allow for assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) in Connecticut, one of only eight states without it. Rep. Michele fought valiantly for his bill, but it was not, however, AOT that he gained for Connecticut.

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