Fitch and Swanson on Civil Commitment
Civil commitment and the mental health care continuum: Historical trends and principles for law and practice.
Jeffrey Swanson is Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine. Swanson holds a PhD in sociology from Yale University. He is a social scientist researcher who collaborates across disciplines to build evidence for interventions, policies and laws to improve outcomes for adults with serious mental illnesses in the community, and to reduce firearm-related violence and suicide.
Larry Fitch is a lawyer on the faculty of the University of Maryland, where he teaches classes on mental health law in the Law School and lectures in the forensic psychiatry fellowship program in the Medical School. He served as Director of Forensic Services for the Maryland Mental Hygiene Administration from 1994- 2013. Prior to that, Larry was a professor at the University of Virginia Law School and Director of Forensic Evaluation Training and Research at the University’s Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy.