After years of witnessing the system’s shortcomings, they decided to take on the role of advocates to help improvethe system.

Tragedies involving mental health issues highlight some of the technical nuances in Massachusetts laws that have long been overlooked by the Legislature.

A few weeks before Mayor Eric Adams announced that New York would begin a big push to involuntarily hospitalize severely mentally ill homeless people even if they posed no risk of harm to others, my sister was involuntarily admitted to a psychiatric unit in a city hospital.