CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — A state senator who was attacked by his son before the young man killed himself says Virginia will be a model for mental health services.

The Daily Progress (http://bit.ly/SXl0Za ) reports that Sen. R. Creigh Deeds addressed dozens of local mental health workers and emergency service providers Thursday in Charlottesville. He told them, “We’re going to remake the system.”

Nov. 19, Austin “Gus” Deeds repeatedly stabbed his father, then killed himself with a rifle at the family’s rural Bath County home.

The younger Deeds had been released 13 hours earlier from an emergency custody order after a mental health clinician failed to find a psychiatric bed so that he could undergo further evaluation.

Deeds said mental health legislation passed this session in response to the incident is just a start.

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Information from: The Daily Progress, http://www.dailyprogress.com

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