Coming under the microscope is a program intended to support Mainers with severe mental health conditions.Advocates in Augusta Monday tried to make the case that the Progressive Treatment Program should have been utilized to help a Poland man who is now charged with murder. “I am the parent of Justin Butterfield’s two beautiful children whose lives have been ruined and have fallen victim to a system that has failed Justin, his brother Gabriel Damour and my family,” Yaicha Provencher said. A public advocate for a program she is only now learning of, Provencher believes her ex-boyfriend Justin Butterfield should have been in a progressive treatment program. Butterfield is accused of killing his brother on thanksgiving in Poland, following years of brief hospitalizations and run-ins with the law. “How was it that his support team did not know of this and demand that the hospital put him on this plan? Because, if I knew, I would have, and I believe his team would have too,” Provencher said. Loved ones can ask for someone to be placed in a conditional release program following a psychiatric hospitalization with a judge’s approval. They’re required to maintain treatment. The bill’s original sponsor, former state Senator John Nutting says it’s underutilized. “It is cruel (and) it is inhumane, in our opinion,” he said. Nutting believes 80 Mainers use the program but thinks it should be available to hundreds. “This fundamental misunderstanding and misdiagnosis of anosognosia has to stop,” Nutting said. Nutting is trying to reshape language around the issue.He says the program is for people with severe brain disorders, adding that he thinks utilizing the program is compassionate for people diagnosed with anosognosia who don’t understand their ailments. Provencher is now finding purpose in pushing for programs that, she thinks, should’ve been embraced years ago. “We need to do better for those who cannot help themselves,” she said. A spokesperson for the Maine Department of Health and Human Services said the agency uses the progressive treatment program lawfully, and they continue to support alternatives to involuntary commitment, calling it a “last resort.”