Creigh Deeds introduces mental health legislation

 Roughly two months after Virginia state Sen. Creigh Deeds was stabbed multiple times by his son, the Democratic lawmaker is introducing new legislation that targets mental health services in the commonwealth.

His agenda for the 2014 session includes proposals that would create a psychiatric bed registry and expand the time limit for emergency custody orders.

Less than 24 hours before the stabbing in November, Deeds' son, who went by "Gus," had undergone an evaluation by mental health professionals while he was under an emergency custody order.

Officials reportedly had to release Gus, 24, because no psychiatric bed was available at a local hospital and an individual could only be held under emergency custody for up to six hours.

The next morning, Gus stabbed his father in the chest and head during a fight. He then turned a gun on himself and died. The incident captured national headlines.

Deeds, who's returning to Richmond for the first day of the session Wednesday, told the Roanoke Times on Monday that his son had a history of mental illness and was twice committed for psychiatric treatment in 2011.

One of Deeds' new bills proposes to amend current law to expand the length of time a person can be held under emergency custody order to 24 hours, from a maximum of six hours.

The state senator is also the chief patron of legislation that would establish a psychiatric bed registry to provide real-time information on the availability of beds in multiple facilities.

While the local hospital turned Gus away due to a lack of beds, three hospitals in the area told CNN in November that they had beds available and no one called them. All three are within an hour or two of the Deeds family home in Millboro, about 150 miles west of Richmond.

Another bill put forward by Deeds would direct the commonwealth's Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to review its training and oversight standards for officials who perform evaluations of patients under emergency custody.

Deeds is also calling for new joint subcommittee that would study of the delivery of mental health services.

Not long after the November incident, Deeds vowed to pursue a mental health agenda, telling a local newspaper that he would focus on the state's services so that "other families don't have to go through what we are living."

"I think there may be a bigger problem here. I am alive for a reason, and I will work for change. I owe that to my precious son," Deeds told The Recorder, a newspaper based in Monterey, Virginia.

Also on Deeds' agenda is a bill that would make it a felony for an individual to sell or transfer a firearm to a person who's legally not allowed to own a gun and did not perform a background check.

It's not clear whether the proposal is related to the incident involving his son. Deeds has proposed gun measures in the past; last year he introduced a similar bill that in addition called for background checks on all firearm purchases.