Matter of Gregorovich

Ms. Gregorovich, a 21-year-old woman, was involuntarily committed to an Illinois hospital upon order of a Cook County circuit-court judge. In the month leading up to Gregorovich’s hospitalization, Gregorovich was exhibiting increasingly aggressive behavior toward her mother. At the start of the month, Gregorovich assaulted her mother, leaving scratches on her mother’s hand that took three weeks to heal. In the instance leading to Gregorovich’s hospitalization, Gregorovich cut the television’s power cord after her mother asked her to lower the volume, cut the power cords of all the lamps, and turned the scissors toward her mother, who was standing nearby. Gregorovich’s mother called the police immediately following the final incident and had Gregorovich admitted to the hospital, where she was examined by two psychiatrists and a hospital mental-health worker before her mother petitioned the court for involuntary judicial commitment. At the commitment hearing, the hospital’s mental-health professionals testified that Gregorovich was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and took a hostile stance toward hospital staff; she was not bathing; she was hearing voices and having delusions; and she believed that she could read and control people’s minds. Both psychiatrists testified that Gregorovich should remain hospitalized for continued treatment despite not having harmed herself or any others at the hospital. One of the psychiatrists further testified that there was a possibility that Gregorovich would harm someone in the future because she had expressed a desire to kill her mother. At the conclusion of the hearing, the judge found that Gregorovich was a person subject to involuntary confinement under the state’s Mental Health and Development Disabilities Code. Gregorovich appealed, arguing there was insufficient evidence to establish that she was subject to involuntary commitment.