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March 10, 2000

Reprinted with permission. Copyright 2000 The San Francisco Chronicle. All rights reserved.

Editorial: Hope for the Mentally Ill In Assembly Legislation

SOCIETY'S TREATMENT of its severely mentally ill is a disgrace.

It is hardly humane to allow people not capable of making rational decisions for themselves to lie in their own filth on the streets as members of the anonymous "homeless" population or to face prison terms rather than treatment options because they cannot differentiate right from wrong.

Yet studies show that at least one-third of homeless individuals and approximately 16 percent of inmates in California jails and prisons are severely mentally ill -- meaning they suffer from schizophrenia, major depression and other disabling conditions. Each year, about 1,000 homicides are committed across the country by individuals with severe mental illness.

What could change these deplorable circumstances is treatment. Even the most insidious brain diseases can be successfully treated. Current law, however, makes if very difficult to provide that treatment to people who don't want it. The Catch-22 is that it takes treatment for many mentally ill people to understand that they would be better off with medication or counseling or both to combat their illness.

In an effort to turn the tide of a system that has not worked for California's mentally ill, Assemblywoman Helen Thomson, D-Davis, has written legislation that would both streamline the hearing process and extend the time allowed for involuntary treatment. The measure, AB 1800, was carefully written to protect individual patient rights, to ensure that the patient had reliable advocacy representation at hearings, to favor outpatient, over inpatient, care and to encourage voluntary compliance. But it also recognizes that the choice for treatment cannot always be left up to the patients themselves, especially in the early stages of treatment.

Thomson's measure, which is scheduled for its first legislative hearing in the Assembly Health Committee on Tuesday, also would set aside $350 million for desperately-needed community services for the mentally ill.

The bill is intended to provide people with the care they need in the shortest time possible and also give doctors and the courts a reasonable amount of time in which to succeed. Thomson's bill would help end the neglect and criminalization of the state's mentally ill.

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