13-03-2025
Helping those who won't help themselves: Casey's Law advocates for family seeking to require treatment
GRAYSON 'The bottom line is this, people have to be alive to recover.'
Charlotte Wethington said this to attendees during a breakout session of Tuesday's Bridges Out of Addiction seminar at ACTC.
'Casey died and an advocate was born, and that is me, I am Casey's mother,' Wethington said.
The session taught about the law and how the law works. It is a tool that allows parents, relatives and/or friends to push for treatment for a person with substance use disorder, even those without criminal charges.
'People who have the disease of addiction need and deserve treatment as much as anyone else who has a chronic, progressive, potentially fatal disease,' Wethington said. 'Addiction is a brain disease, not a crime.
'We are still fighting that word. That is almost as dangerous as the drugs themselves,' Wethington asked. 'Stigma is what keeps people in secret, it is what keeps us from talking about the fact it is a disease and treating it as such.'
Wethington was spurred to action after being unable to get treatment for her son and the difference her husband, who had a terminal disease, and her son got.
Wethington said she hoped her son would have gotten in trouble with the law, but he never faced any major time. He was arrested with marijuana and paraphernalia, but his charges never got to court.
'He finally got a summons on the day of his funeral,' Wethington said.
Her son never had court-ordered treatment — something she fought for — so others have legal recourse to get treatment for their loved ones.
With Casey's Law there are three requirements users must meet. They must suffer from substance use disorder, must be a danger to themselves or others, or likely be one in the near future, and they would benefit from treatment.
'It is a hopeful option,' Joan Arlinghaus, advocate, said. 'It is not a guarantee, not a silver bullet. It gets them into treatment and hopefully gets them to realize it is working for them.'
Wethington said the rights of those addicted are protected.
Once the paperwork is filled out, the law requires two evaluations, one from a doctor and a second from a doctor or therapist.
When filling out paperwork, those two evaluations need to be set up, Arlinghaus said.
The person is then summoned with the dates and times to those appointments.
Arlinghaus said the court summons ensures the user goes to the appointments.
'If you are filling this out on someone you should be willing to help them, get them to appointments. This is a civil case between the petitioner and the respondent,' Arlinghaus said.
She said sometimes the respondent chooses not to have contact with the filer.
The person has the right to ask for a jury or bench trial.
'They have always had the right to ask for those things, determine proof of probable cause, now it is beyond a reasonable doubt, the respondent is entitled to legal representation,' Arlinghaus said.
The paperwork asks what evidence the petitioner has about drug use.
'If necessary, attach additional pages,' Arlinghaus said. 'All the information you have about their drug use, not just 'They are using drugs.' The more information the better.'
The petition is provided to the professionals, to provide background information.
'They can't make an evaluation just on the petition, but it gives them things to question them about. Sometimes it encourages them to be much more forthcoming,' she added.
The petition can be made against those in treatment, but not in compliance, Arlinghaus explained.
'It is a great opportunity to file, they are not able to do this on their own,' she added.
While most of the filings are from parents for their children, Arlinghaus said they are seeing children filling on their parents as well as friends filling on friends.
'You have the right to know if they are in compliance or not,' Arlinghaus said.
The paperwork has a clause regarding guarantee of payment. Arlinghaus said that most of the people filled against qualify for low or no cost treatment.
'Usually before you file Casey's Law, the person has nothing left,' Arlinghaus said.
'We have advocates if the county is not supportive,' she added. 'Casey's Law works; if there are offices where people want it to work, it does.'
Kentucky is one of two states that has Casey's Law or something similar. Florida has a similar program that is working, Arlinghaus said.
'Ohio has Casey's Law, but it is not working, it is flat out not working,' Arlinghaus said.
A similar law was talked about in West Virginia but did not come to fruition.
'(It) always comes back to the person's rights,' Arlinghaus said. 'We are trying to give the right to live, to be a parent.'
People's rights are protected in Casey's Law, Wethington stressed.
'Families don't just do this on a whim,' Wethington said. 'Nobody who doesn't care about the person is going through the process. While it is not a difficult process, it's a time-consuming one. This is a last resort, gives them hope that maybe this will be the thing that gets their loved one into recovery.'
'We have over 4,000 who have been ordered into treatment because of Casey's Law,' Arlinghaus said.
'There is not a way to follow up on that,' Arlinghaus said when asked about success rate of Casey's Law.
She did share of a story where a couple met because of being ordered to treatment by Casey's Law and finding sobriety.
'The family can know even if their loved one doesn't survive, they have exhausted every possible way they have,' Wethington said.
'I still feel guilty. I know I didn't cause it, I know I couldn't cure it,' Wethington said. 'Acceptance is hard.'
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