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The painful journey that began almost three months ago for Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, continues now on the other side of the Capitol in the Virginia House of Delegates.

Deeds reached a milestone in his quest for mental health reforms on Monday in the Virginia Senate. It voted 38-0 to approve legislation he sponsored in the aftermath of the Nov. 19 attack by his son that left the senator bleeding from multiple stab wounds and Austin R. “Gus” Deeds dead by his own hand.

The centerpiece of Senate Bill 260 is a 24-hour limit on emergency custody orders to hold people involuntarily for psychiatric evaluation — quadrupling the current limit of six hours to prevent people from being released, as his son was, despite being found a danger to themselves or others.

“We’ve got to do better as a society,” Deeds said in an impassioned five-minute floor speech.

Deeds, who bears the facial scars from his son’s attack, told his colleagues that in the aftermath of his son’s death, he has heard from many people who have had similar experiences to his own.

“And a lot of them live in your districts,” he added. “Maybe they don’t get attention because they aren’t state legislators, but similar situations happen every day.”