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Sacramento Bee

April 23, 2004

Reprinted with permission of the author. All rights reserved.

Mental care tools

Re "Troubled woman, freed of father's control, falls prey to violence," April 13: The second in Diana Griego Erwin's powerful two-part portrait of Carrisa Rolfe made my heart ache. This tragedy might have been avoided. California requires judicial consideration of family testimony and psychiatric history when courts evaluate treatment decisions.Even worse, in Sacramento County the court did not have available a life-saving safety net, Laura's Law (AB 1421, 2002), for court-ordered treatment that is available elsewhere in California and in 40 other states.

Sacramento County has yet to implement Laura's Law, which would have meant release from inpatient care to the community under an outpatient commitment order. New York's similar law demonstrated a sharp decline (for six-month commitments) in hospitalization (63 percent), homelessness (55 percent), arrest (75 percent) and incarceration (69 percent) for participants.

Laura's Law can help the most ill by ensuring continued treatment in the community. The California Psychiatric Association worked very hard to pass both laws. One of those laws was seemingly ignored, another completely unutilized. We have proven tools to help people such as Carrisa. But for tools to work, they must be used.

Randall Hagar, Sacramento
Director of Government Affairs, California Psychiatric Association