Members of Missouri’s Mental Health Task Force begin a series of six public hearings today in wake of the ruling that a death at a state mental health facility was a homicide. The first meeting begins this (Thursday) afternoon at the Metropolitan St. Louis Psychiatric Center, not far from the Northwest Habilitation Center where mental patient Rudy Wallace in March was scalded to death; a death ruled a homicide by the St. Louis County Medical Examiner. Mental Health Task Force Co-Chairman, Lt. Governor Peter Kinder, says the implications of the ruling will be felt by a task force charged with investigating alleged mental patient abuse. He says it heightens the necessity for the task force to do its work, including taking testimony from Missourians about the treatment of the mentally ill, both in state-run facilities and in private facilities with state contracts. The Task Force crosses the state to hold a public hearing tomorrow afternoon at the Western Missouri Mental Health Center in Kansas City. Hearings in Cape Girardeau, Kirksville, Springfield and Joplin follow. The hearing today in St. Louis will be in the Multipurpose Room of the Metropolitan St. Louis Psychiatric Center, located at 5351 Delmar, St. Louis. It begins at 1:30pm and is scheduled to conclude at 4:30pm. The Kansas City hearing is scheduled to begin at 12-Noon tomorrow (Friday).

Related web sites:
Missouri Mental Health Task Force