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NY TREATMENT ADVOCACY COALITION

STATEMENT
by DJ Jaffe, NY Coordinator

250 West  27th Street, New York, NY   10001

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                             CONTACT:  press office for NYTAC at TAC 
June 16, 1999                                                                                     703 294 6008

Governor Pataki, Senate Leader Joe Bruno, and Assembly Speaker Silver Should Honor Their Commitment to Pass Kendra's Law Before Legislature Adjourns

New York, NY  -- Governor Pataki, Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver should follow through on their commitment to pass Kendra's Law before the legislative session ends.

On May 19th, Governor Pataki and Assembly Speaker Silver issued virtually identical bills named after Kendra Webdale who was pushed to her death by Andrew Goldstein, a young man with schizophrenia who frequently went off his violence preventing medicines.   "Assisted Outpatient Treatment," the technical name for Kendra's Law, allows a court, after hearing evidence, to order certain patients with a history of violence to stay in treatment and on medicines that can prevent violence.  More importantly, the court can also order the mental health care provider to try to elicit compliance, rather than simply close the case if a patient fails to show up for treatment.   Under Kendra's Law, New York will be able to treat people with mental illness before they become dangerous, rather than jailing them after.  That's better for the patient.  Better for the public.

Assisted Outpatient Treatment Laws exist in 40 states and have proven enormously successful at  reducing violence and hospitalization.  In Washington, D.C., hospital admissions decreased from 1.81 per year to 0.95 per year before and after assisted outpatient treatment; in Ohio the decrease was from 1.5 to 0.4; and in Iowa from 1.3 to 0.3 admissions.  A study of a pilot program at Bellevue Hospital in New York City demonstrated a 57% reduction in hospital days for patients receiving assisted outpatient treatment.  Kendra's Law would allow patients to live successfully outside hospitals rather than imprisoned in them.  In a recent study of psychiatrically disabled patients who were treated against their will, 60% retrospectively favored the involuntary treatment.

While Pataki, Bruno and Silver have been debating their proposals, three more incidents of violence by people with untreated mental illness have occurred.  Charles Stevens, an untreated schizophrenic, was shot by police while brandishing a sword in Penn Station.  He lost the use of his arm.  Edgar Rivera was pushed in front of a subway in Manhattan by Julio Perez, a man with untreated schizophrenia.  Mr. Rivera lost both his legs.  And just recently in Brooklyn, Olga Maisonet, a woman with a history of mental illness and previous assaults, stabbed Guo-Xi Li, a retired factory worker to death.

Because both the Governor and the Speaker worked closely with the Webdale family and the New York Treatment Advocacy Coalition in developing their proposals, the bills proposed by the Republican dominated Senate and the Democratic dominated Assembly are virtually identical in all the core components.  The bills have broad based suport in NY from over 30 orgnaizations representing mental health advocates, safe-streets groups, providers of mental health services and others.

We urge the Speaker, Governor, and Assembly leader to put aside party differences and pass Kendra's Law now before the legislature recesses.

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The New York Treatment Advocacy Coalition (NYTAC) is affiliated with the Treatment Advocacy Center in Arlington, VA.  NYTAC helps coordinate the efforts of families and advocacy organizations working to help change laws so NY can treat its mentally ill citizens before they become a danger rather than waiting for after.

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