BOISE — A bill to allow police officers and health care providers to place people who have a neurocognitive disorder and are in crisis under temporary protective holds will move forward — although it may be changed after the police union expressed last-minute concerns.
Senate Minority Leader Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, sponsored SB 1247 , as a way to take someone who is a danger to themselves or others to the emergency room for medical assessment and treatment if they have a disorder such as dementia, Alzheimer’s, or Huntington’s disease.
Currently, Idaho law allows officers to put people in an acute mental health crisis in hospitals on a hold, but these laws don’t apply to neurocognitive disorders.
“I don’t think I’ve ever worked on an issue that was this hard,” Wintrow told the Senate Health and Welfare Committee Tuesday.
The lack of options for involuntary holds for those with dementia was noted in the Office of Performance Evaluation’s 2020 report on the state’s response to Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias.