Mentally ill need Kendra's Law today

By Martin Chávez and Joni Gutierrez for the Sun-News

There is a small group of people with very severe mental illnesses who are too sick to seek out treatment. Some say we should ignore them until we can whip the entire mental health system into perfect shape. We say that is not just unrealistic but unacceptable. That's why we believe it is time for Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT), sometimes called a Kendra's Law.

AOT allows someone to be ordered by a court into community mental health treatment. This primarily helps those with the severest forms of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, often people who are so sick they cannot make a rational treatment decision or even recognize their own illness.

Studies show this law saves lives, reduces hospitalizations, reduces arrests and improves quality of life for the small population it helps. The legislation is full of safeguards against it ever being applied to any but the most dire of situations.

New Mexico's departments of Human Services and Health, along with the rest of the state's Behavioral Health Collaborative, recently heard from panels of state and national experts on AOT. After nine hours of talking, the conclusion for some seemed to be that we need to talk some more.

Now, we should be clear. These laws are proven to work. Kendra's Law has been considered at length already and made it to the House floor where it passed 62-0. With time running out, it even made it through the Senate committee process and to the majority floor leader's desk, where it died at the end of the session.

But time is the one thing lacking for people whom Kendra's Law would help — about 75 of New Mexico's sickest citizens, some homeless, some living wherever they can, need treatment today.

Since Kendra's Law stalled last session, we have been working with stakeholders from the behavioral health community to help them see past the misinformation and hear their suggestions to further improve the bill.

We've been supported by U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, countless family members and law enforcement officers too often called upon to handle people in psychotic crises whom the mental health community has failed. We have faith that the governor, who placed this proposal on the call of the last session in the first place, will sign Kendra's Law if we can get it past the Santa Fe insiders and to his desk.

This broad coalition of supporters has crossed party lines in their agreement that passage of an AOT law in New Mexico is critical, if we are to have a way to help the mentally ill whose own insight into the disease is being blocked by the disease itself — too often with tragic results.

We really don't have the time to wait until someone's danger to themselves or others becomes imminent before we intervene on their behalf. This isn't just about high profile homicides, but also suicides and victimization.

Nobody argues that public resources for the mentally ill are presently adequate in New Mexico, and those who say that more resources will make AOT more effective certainly have a valid point. But more money will make any program more effective — and this proposal is really quite distinct from questions of increased public support for services.

The bottom line is that AOT in and of itself is a good idea. It will make the mental health services we already have more efficient. Additional funding will only make it effective for even more people.

The question is, will the residents of Doña Ana County be able to benefit from this important legislation?

We believe so. We hope the law will pass statewide this session. But Albuquerque, where an additional $21 million has already been appropriated over the last three budget cycles to prevention and intervention services, has decided it cannot wait for Santa Fe to act. An AOT ordinance was recently passed there.

But that won't do much to help Doña Ana County residents who are in dire need right now. Kendra's Law would be more effective if it could be utilized statewide, rather than in a patchwork fashion depending on what part of the town or county someone lived in.

Tales of insider politicking, bids for more money, and academic theories about services seem cold and heartless when you are desperate to get treatment for someone you love. We think that is inexcusable, and hope you will join us to bring Kendra's Law not just to Albuquerque, but to the whole state. Too many suffering people are almost out of time.

Martin Chávez is mayor of Albuquerque; Joni Gutierrez, of Mesilla, is state representative from Doña Ana County's District 33.

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