Spurred by Deeds, the assembly also asked for a study of certification requirements and training for emergency clinicians and created a four-year joint legislative subcommittee to study the entire state mental health system, including the lack of mental health services for people in many jails across the state.

The notice filed Thursday echoed concerns voiced in the inspector general’s report over the lack of time available for the actual evaluation of Gus Deeds because of the requirement that a psychiatric facility accept him before a temporary detention order could be issued, as well as getting a magistrate to approve a two-hour extension of the initial order.

Fishwick said the Rockbridge board “lacked a specific protocol to guide or inform” its evaluator, Mike Gentry, in his evaluation. “Instead of a deliberative clinical fact-finding process to assess Gus’s dangerousness to self or others, including self-care, most of Mike Gentry’s efforts were directed toward locating a private psychiatric facility and administrative activities,” the letter states.

Gus Deeds was released because no psychiatric facility had been found to accept him, but the notice said Gentry had contacted only seven of the 10 facilities he said he had called, and did not contact any of three designated state psychiatric facilities.