Under current court rulings, the state has no authority to intervene in providing involuntary mental health services to the homeless mentally ill unless the state can show that these persons are dangerous to themselves or to others. This restrictive policy is designed to keep the state from institutionalizing persons that manifest any behaviors or attitudes deemed to suggest mental illness. Although this is a laudable aim, this standard prevents the state from providing early intervention for mentally ill persons who cannot perceive their need for help and who continue to deteriorate in their ability to care for their needs. In an effort to remedy this situation, the American Psychiatric Association has designed a model law that would authorize the state to intervene in "emergency" situations where self-destruction is evident but "dangerousness" is not a factor. New York State has followed the lead of this model law in enacting a law that provides for State intervention in the case of a "mental illness for which immediate observation, care, and treatment in a hospital is appropriate and which is likely to result in serious harm to himself or others." Such laws are necessary if the mentally ill persons who cannot help themselves are to be given an opportunity for a better life. 116 footnotes.