Editor’s Note

This issue of Mental Health Matters presents summaries of three recent appellate court opinions, all offering tremendous guidance for mental health law practitioners.

The Marcus S. opinion from the third district laments some of egregious errors by courts, prosecutors, and defense counsel in involuntary admission and involuntary treatment cases and proposes some ways to correct those errors through education. Some of those suggestions have been the topic of discussion of this section council for some time.

In re the Marriage of Wendy W. and James W. addresses issues which arise in the context of marital disputes, a minor’s right to control access to his or her mental health record, whether a therapeutic school record is a mental health record and other very practical issues faced by practitioners on a regular basis.

Since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, there has been an increase in the number of mental health cases worldwide. There has also been an increase in willingness to talk about those issues more openly. Mental Health Matters is always looking for contributions for publication. Please consider sharing.