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TO: California Treatment Advocacy Coalition
FROM: Carla Jacobs & Randall Hagar
DATE: February 1, 2000
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AB1800 INTRODUCED
Last Thursday, Assemblywoman Thomson's LPS Reform legislation was introduced in the Assembly as AB1800. Please include this bill number in all your letters.
The text of the bill along with its legislative history and status can be found at
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?bill_number=ab_1800&sess=CUR&house=B
Our work now begins in earnest.
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SAN FRANCISCO BOARD OF SUPERVISORS IS WITH US!!
The Board of Supervisors for San Francisco City and County has passed a resolution calling on the legislature to pass Assemblywoman Thomson and Senator Perata's LPS reform bill. From the reasons the board uses to justify their call for the measures passage, it is clear they understand why LPS must be reformed—that once people are no longer capable of rationally determining what the course of their treatment should be they must be given the best available care until once again competent.
Note: this is not an official copy of the San Francisco County Board's resolution, but rather our transcription of it (we did not have an electronic copy).
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San Francisco County Board of Supervisors
Supports AB 1800
Urging the California Legislature to Pass Assembly Bill 1028 {now AB1800} which would amend the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act ("LPS Act")
Whereas, The LPS Act currently provides for the detention and involuntary treatment of the severely mentally ill once they are an immediate danger to themselves or others of become gravely disabled and,
Whereas, the LPS Act was designed to provide more mental health services in the community rather than in state mental hospitals where people were instituionalized for very long periods of time; and,
Whereas, the LPS Act needs to be amended because the mentally ill are not being treated in a timely manner prior to entering the criminal justice system-the LPS law provides for legal intervention only after someone is so sick they cannot function at all or they pose an immediate danger to others; and,
Whereas, the lack of treating the mentally ill in a timely manner causes them to deteriorate on the streets, in public shelters, or in their homes; and,
Whereas, AB 1028 {now AB 1800} will improve the LPS law by making it an effective tool to provide earlier access to a fully funded assisted outpatient treatment program in the community as originally envisioned 30 years ago; and,
Whereas, AB 1028 {now AB 1800} will create a voluntary 6-month contractual outpatient program option for those who qualify and would prefer a structured and supervised outpatient treatment program to treatment in a locked facility; and,
Whereas, AB 1028 {now AB 1800} more aptly defines the term gravely disabled so that it allows the person’s medical history to be considered so that more severely mentally ill people can access these services; and,
Whereas, AB 1028 {now AB 1800} will provide $350 million to fund the community outreach and aftercare services necessary to support the program; and,
Whereas, AB 1028 {now AB 1800} would streamline the hearing process by combining in one hearing the determinations for the need for commitment and the capacity to consent or refuse treatment, while still maintaining the requirement that a determination of lack of capacity to make treatment decisions be made prior to involuntary treatment; now, therefore be it
RESOLVED, That the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco urges the California State Assembly to pass AB 1028 {now AB 1800} which would amend the LPS act.
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California Treatment Advocacy Coalition
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