Seattle University Collaborative Projects - International Academy of ...

about autonomy. This shift, in turn, has resulted in an evolution in the linguistic style of the lawsenacted. This project examines many different guardianship statutes from around the UnitedStates, demonstrating that subtle linguistic maneuvers in the style of drafting affects the degreeof discretion given to decision makers. Using advances in the psychology of concepts andcategories, the article demonstrates the descriptive inadequacy of the classical distinction of rulesversus standards in legislative drafting, and adds prototype-based laws and laws dependent uponenriched mental models to types of laws that legislators employ. The goal of the work is to builda self-conscious awareness of the tools available to policy-makers in their efforts to honelegislation in this important area of mental health law.When Mental Health is not Public Health: How Judicial Language and itsInterpretation Negatively Impacts Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) in NewYork CitySusan J. Guercio, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York, USA(sjguercio@yahoo.com; sguercio@health.nyc.gov) (212-788-5270; 914-787-0401)In May 2011, the New York State Court of Appeals (the highest court in New York State) opinedthat the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene was neither a public healthauthority nor a treatment provider as defined by the federal privacy statute called HIPAA (HealthInsurance Portability and Accountability Act). This decision was a blow to the localgovernment’s capacity to obtain psychiatric records to use in a court proceeding to compelmental health treatment without the patient’s permission or a court order with proper notice.Additionally, the last line of the Court’s decision called into question the legitimacy of all priorAOT court orders obtained since the beginning of the program with the language “We thereforehold that medical records obtained in violation of HIPAA or the Privacy Rule, and theinformation contained in those records, are not admissible in a proceeding to compel AOT.” Thispresentation will discuss what is believed to be the court’s good intentions in this ruling, andhow the language and intent is not only ambiguous, but could have the unintended consequencesof destroying the New York State Program which is considered a model for the entire country.The Tenacity of Mental Health Stereotypes of Women in Sexual and IntimateViolenceElizabeth M. Schneider, Brooklyn Law School, Brooklyn, USA (liz.schneider@brooklaw.edu)(718-780-7988)This presentation will examine the ways in which mental health stereotypes of women pervadecases of sexual and intimate violence in a number of different settings.247