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TO: California Treatment Advocacy Coalition
FROM: Carla Jacobs & Randall Hagar
DATE: November 19, 1999
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The California Treatment Advocacy Coalition is pleased to begin our first email newsletter by announcing that Assemblywoman Helen Thomson and Senator Don Perata will introduce legislation in January 2000 to reform the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act ("LPS"). This legislation will be incorporated in Assembly Bill 1028 [NOW AB1800]. In a letter to prospective co-authors, they write:

"When session reconvenes, we will be introducing amendments to AB1028 [NOW AB1800] to update the 1967 LPS Act to be more responsive to the needs of the severely mentally ill. With the scientific medical advances in treatments over the last 20 years, severe mental illnesses can be as effectively treated as any other chronic physical illness.

The LPS Act (5150 of the Welfare and Institutions Code) was intended to integrate severely mentally ill persons with services in the community where care would be provided in a more cost-effective, humane setting. By requiring that a person be found to be an immediate danger to self or others or gravely disabled before being involuntarily held, the LPS law virtually emptied the state hospitals overnight even though sufficient services and funding were not in place to provide the treatment and housing options

envisioned then for our communities. Access to quality public mental health services has improved since then and will hopefully continue to get better as policy makers give increasing attention to the needs of the mentally ill. Without a change in the LPS law to allow more effective involuntary intervention for those who are so severely mentally ill that they refuse medical treatment and deteriorate further without it, even the best, most accessible services possible cannot help.

We plan to provide legislation which will:

� Clarify the 5150 law to allow consideration of the patient's condition beyond the immediate moment and the medical history in order to consider the risk of further deterioration without treatment.

� To combine certain court hearings to allow the need of for involuntary commitment and treatment to be determined at the same hearing.

� To provide an outpatient treatment option to those who agree to accept the terms of their involuntary treatment in a less restrictive setting.

� And other changes as may be proposed from a series of hearings currently being held up and down the state by constituency groups or from other interested individuals and groups.

Today in California, to our great shame, jails and prisons have become the provider of last resort for the mentally ill. The mentally ill are virtually ignored until the consumer is in crisis or incarcerated. "Transinstitutionalization" has become a large part of the service delivery system for the mentally ill. The criminal justice system, the most costly setting for treating the severely mentally ill, often provides comprehensive medically necessary psychiatric care under constant supervision but that treatment is often delayed too long. Ironically and tragically, upon release there is no legal way to maintain the structure and supervision necessary to ensure that persons with severe mental illness stay in treatment. Soon, many deteriorate and, if they survive, are back in the hospital, jail or prison, over and over and over again."

In this battle to win recovery for all, we salute our champions in the legislature--Helen Thomson and Don Perata--for their dedication to the people most severely disabled by mental illness.

Why this email?

We are starting this e-mail action list for people who have expressed interest in seeing the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act reformed so that people too sick to access treatment voluntarily can be helped. The actual reform legislation is now being drafted.

We will try to keep e-mails to this action list to a minimum but will provide you alerts once the legislation is introduced and other relevant information that will help you get this important reform past.

By reforming LPS we will save countless lives and give people a new chance at recovery!

FYI: Informational, logistical and technical support is being given to our Coalition by the Treatment Advocacy Center. Jonathan Stanley, that organization’s Assistant Director, will be our liaison with them. Messages to this list will come from his e-mail address.

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A New Vision for Mental Health Treatment Laws: LPS Reform

In 1995, the leadership of two organizations, the Los Angeles County Affiliates of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) and the Southern California Psychiatric Society, joined together to develop a task force to explore the growing difficulty to convey needed treatment with any consistency to people so impaired by mental illness that they required involuntary help. The membership included NAMI members, psychiatrists, law enforcement officers, psychologists, attorneys, nurses, social workers, consumers, and others.

Additional hard copies to share with your media contacts or legislators can be obtained by sending a minimum $10 donation to:

"NEW VISION",
203 Argonne Ave., B104,
Long Beach, Ca 90803

Please make your check made payable to NAMI-Long Beach.

This report was introduced at a joint hearing of the California legislature on Feb. 16^th and has served as the basis for the need to reform.

California Treatment Advocacy Coalition
To receive future updates on LPS Reform contact [email protected]