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Landmark Legislation, Laura's Law, Brings 
Much-Needed Reform to California

AB 1421 will help those with severe mental illnesses who are too sick to help themselves

The Treatment Advocacy Center, a national nonprofit dedicated to eliminating barriers to timely and humane treatment for millions of Americans with severe mental illnesses, commends California Gov. Gray Davis for signing California Assembly Bill 1421, updating the state's archaic mental illness treatment law. The new legislation allows court-ordered, intensive outpatient treatment for people with severe mental illnesses who refuse medication because their illness impairs their ability to make rational decisions. In those counties that adopt one, an AB 1421 program will ensure that everyone has the right to live in a world free of psychotic delusion.

AB 1421 can make a tremendous difference to family members struggling daily to find help for loved ones with severe mental illness, and to those who are the sickest - especially the 24,000 homeless and the 25,000 inmates in California's prisons, which de-facto makes the LA County jail the nation's largest psychiatric hospital. Preliminary findings in New York, where similar legislation passed August 1999, indicate that those in that state's "Kendra's Law" program experienced a 129% increase in medication compliance; a 26% decrease in harmful behavior; and a 100% decrease in homelessness. The passage of AB 1421, also known as "Laura's Law," brings California into line with the majority of states that are changing their laws to make it easier to get appropriate and timely treatment.

The victory for Californians who most suffer from severe mental illnesses is a monument to the determination of Assemblywoman Helen Thomson (D-Davis), a former psychiatric nurse who conceived this humane treatment legislation and worked tirelessly for four years for passage.

The Treatment Advocacy Center also commends the members of the California Treatment Advocacy Coalition (CTAC), a grassroots alliance of those most directly affected by state laws that have protected the "right" to be psychotic over the true right to treatment. Led by coordinators Carla Jacobs, Randall Hagar, and Chuck Sosebee, this coalition of family members, medical professionals, law enforcement personnel, and people with mental illnesses spawned a statewide movement that was backed by more than 30 supportive editorials from California's newspapers. We are especially grateful to The San Francisco Chronicle and The Los Angeles Times for their series of editorials on this issue - two of The Times' editorial writers won a well-deserved Pulitzer Prize for their work; all the supportive newspapers can take pride in being part of saving the lives and hopes of thousands in California.

Laura Wilcox's name is on the legislation, but the law stands equally for the tens of thousands of victims of suicide, homelessness, incarceration, victimization, and homicide attributable to lack of treatment. Now California's counties must put this powerful tool to good use, to prevent further tragedies caused by untreated severe mental illnesses.