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TO: California Treatment Advocacy Coalition
FROM: Carla Jacobs & Randall Hagar
DATE: December 21, 1999
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AGAIN—NOW THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE!!!!
Yesterday the Times today the Chronicle. Below is the San Francisco Chronicle's unqualified endorsement of AB-1028 [NOW AB1800], Assemblywoman Helen Thomson's (and our) effort to help those overcome by the symptoms of mental illness. We now have the support of the two largest newspapers in the state, but this only provides the momentum we need to get started.
Please write to the Chronicle--the shorter the better. Most letters that get published are between 4 and 6 sentences. Just pick one point and push it through.
Contact information:
San Francisco Chronicle
Letters to the Editor
901 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94103-2988
Fax- (415) 543-7708
[email protected]
Send your letter any or all of these possible ways.
Following the Chronicle’s endorsement is a letter by the head of Clients for LPS Reform, Charles Sosebee, from the San Diego Union-Tribune and then one by CTAC Coordinator Carla Jacobs that was published in the Long Beach Press Telegram.
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The San Francisco Chronicle
December 21, 1999, Tuesday
EDITORIAL
Mental Health System Not Working For Anybody
ASSEMBLYWOMAN HELEN Thomson is taking her efforts to reform mental health laws in
California a step at a time, knowing what a charged issue she is tackling.
Unlike most of her colleagues, Thomson, D-Davis, has chosen to face head-on one of the
toughest and longest-neglected policy issues in the state -- that of the abysmal treatment
of the mentally ill, who are as likely to be found in jails and on the streets as in a
care or treatment program.
Last week Thomson outlined her plan to reform the 32-year-old Lanterman-Petris-Short Act
which, though well intended, has had the effect of making it almost impossible to
successfully treat people who do not want to be treated, even if it is for their own good.
Thomson's bill, AB1028, would allow authorities to hold individuals for 28 days, rather
than the current 14, if it is determined that they may be dangerous to themselves or
others. It would streamline the hearing process that is required after holding someone for
72 hours and it would allow those who have been certified for involuntary commitment to
opt into a voluntary outpatient treatment program in which they would agree to take their
medications.
"Too many mentally ill adults deteriorate on the streets, in public shelters or in
the back bedrooms of their parents' homes," Thomson said. "There, some become
dangerous as a result of their untreated psychotic symptoms, they often turn on those who
love them and cause preventable tragedy. And we can't do anything about it."
Her concerns are shared by U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, who last week issued a
thoughtful, exhaustive report on the mentally ill that analyzed hundreds of reports and
summarized new and effective treatments. It should provide Thomson with heavy ammunition
in her campaign to get fellow lawmakers to wake up to the degree of the problem and to
favorably consider her legislation.
Thomson is moving bravely into tricky territory. It is not easy to determine at what point
the desirability of committing mentally ill people crosses the line into abrogation of
civil rights. But the need for a stiffening of current law is plain.
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The San Diego Union-Tribune
December 18, 1999
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Long Beach Press Telegram Dec. 20, 1999
Letter to the Editor:
Without a doubt, Long Beach has its year round angels in its MET teams. These teams include a specially trained officer who rides with a mental health clinician to respond to emergency calls involving mental illness. Long Beach needs more of these teams so MET can be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. As your excellent editorial points out, however, even
these compassionate people cannot work effectively under the current mental health treatment laws. Too frequently, the people they succeed in diverting away from homelessness and criminalization are quickly released from the hospitals without the ability to maintain their recovery in the community.
The Lanterman, Petris, Short Act (LPS) stymies the MET team. The good intentions of the 30 year old law assumed that people would generally accept voluntary mental health services in the community. Indeed, most people with mental illness do. But what the LPS failed to recognize is that some people with mental illness are too ill to realize they have a medical condition which will respond to treatment. Instead, they eat out of dumpsters, shunning outreach attempts, hallucinating and delusional with many ending in our jails and prisons. Only too frequently, their symptoms spiral to violent behavior, usually towards the family which is helpless to help them due to this archaic law that requires danger first. As one 81 year old mother who had to go through this process said, "I am glad it was I who got hurt instead of a stranger. I love him."
Waiting for danger is too late. Assemblmember Helen Thomson's proposal to reform the LPS will allow earlier intervention for hospital stabilization and a discharge plan which mandates the person with a history of decompensation takes his or her medication once released. This legally required discharge plan can include all the other services such as rehabilitation, housing, and vocational training which can give the person with mental illness a true road to recovery. Thomson's proposed reform is a humane and compassionate. I urge people of Long Beach to ask our state legislators to support Thomson in her efforts.
Carla Jacobs
Board of Directors
The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill
Long Beach
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California Treatment Advocacy Coalition
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