CALIFORNIA TREATMENT ADVOCACY COALITION

The California Treatment Advocacy Coalition (CTAC) is dedicated to helping those lost to the symptoms of severe mental illness. The Coalition is working to change California's laws so that they promote the care of those rendered incapable of making informed medical decisions by mental illness. CTAC has worked to support a reform of the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act (LPS), the hopelessly outdated legislation that governed when and how Californians who are overcome by mental illness can be placed in needed treatment. Their efforts have been a huge success, as Laura's Law was signed by the governor Sept. 2002. More about CTAC ...

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Why reform?

Guide to Laura's Law
About CTAC

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UPDATED MAY 2003
Laura's Law implementation

Los Angeles County is the first to implement Laura's Law (AB 1421), California's new legislation (effective January 1, 2003) that allows court-ordered, intensive outpatient treatment for people with severe mental illnesses who refuse medication because their illness impairs their ability to make rational decisions. Los Angeles County plans to expand this first program in upcoming months. If successful - which we are positive it will be - more assisted outpatient treatment programs in L.A. will follow.

Governor Davis signed the law on September 28, 2002.

The California Treatment Advocacy Coalition and Treatment Advocacy Center have released a guide detailing how the assisted outpatient treatment programs created by AB 1421 will work and guidance on how each Californian can help secure such a program for his or her county.  A Guide to Laura’s Law is in available in both HTML and PDF.

SUPPORTERS

Passage of AB 1421 brings hope to tens of thousands of people. The coalition supporting its passage over these past few years was extraordinary and included ...

FAMILY MEMBERS "My mother has been showing signs of the illness schizophrenia for seven years or more. It tears me up inside everyday that when I look into my mother's eyes, they aren't hers anymore. She is removed from all that she once knew about the world. She has turned into a recluse and produces accusations of espionage everyday. ... My life would be so completely wonderful if that bill becomes a reality. I could have my mother back in some form or another."
- Name withheld, as author is only 16, letter to TAC

JUDGES "These persons wander the streets hungry, homeless, and without hope. They cycle through our hospitals and are released with no assured after-care or plan to meet their human needs -- and, all too often in my experience, wind up in our jails and prisons, not because they are criminals but because there simply is no place for them in our society."
- Judge Harold Shabo, letter to the Governor, Sept. 2002

LAW ENFORCEMENT "It is society's job to help those who cannot help themselves. Nobody knows this better than law enforcement officers. And nobody knows more than we do the dangers of facing down a person who has had a psychotic break, who is not rational, who may believe we are aliens or that we mean them harm."
- California police chiefs Bernard K. Melekian and Joseph Santoro, June 2002

LEGISLATORS "I hated this bill when it was first introduced four years ago," said local state Sen. Martha Escutia, D-Norwalk, chairwoman of the powerful [judiciary] committee [that passed the bill]. "But, now I am confident that the due process protections are there at every step of the way to protect their rights."
- Whittier News, Aug. 14, 2002

EDITORIAL BOARDS "Based on New York's "Kendra's Law," AB 1421 achieves a delicate balance between a society's responsibility to protect the safety of its citizens and an individual's right to absolute freedom."
- San Francisco Chronicle, July 31, 2002

EDITORIAL BOARDS Imagine a train wreck that scatters passengers across the landscape. Paramedics arrive and begin loading the injured onto stretchers. But when anyone screams out in pain, "No! Don't touch me!" the medics nod compassionately and leave that person sprawled amid the rocks and cactuses. A similar scene has been unfolding on the urban landscape for the last 40 years. People with severe mental illness, tossed from state hospitals, have landed on public sidewalks and in wretched urban encampments. And no one helps them because they say they don't want help.
- Los Angeles Times, April 14, 2002

RESEARCHERS "We concluded that outpatient commitment can help an individual adhere to a beneficial regimen of psychiatric treatment, and may also influence the mental health service system by getting case managers more invested in outreach, in mobilizing resources and in leveraging more services on behalf of a patient."
- Los Angeles Times, Jeff Swanson, May 1, 2001

PARENTS "If people overwhelmed by severe mental illness, like Abrams [who killed the author's 4-year-old daughter], were instead placed in mandated community treatment, they could get well enough to knowingly exercise and enjoy their civil rights. Meanwhile, our right to live in a safe and secure society would be protected."
- Los Angeles Times, Cindy Soto, Jan. 27, 2001

SIBLINGS "My parents lived in sorrow and fear for their youngest child. They died without being able to get her the help she needs. Even the late Assemblyman Frank Lanterman realized, after observing the unintended effects of the legislation he sponsored, that this law had come to 'prevent those who need care from receiving it.'"
- Los Angeles Times, Norah Schumacher, June 11, 2000

ACTIVISTS "Had my sister-in-law been provided treatment under the criteria and structure proposed in AB 1800, the cost to the state might have been $20,000. Instead, expenses for her trial and restricted hospitalization are close to $2 million."
- Los Angeles Times, Carla Jacobs, July 13, 2002

supporters | why reform? | guide to laura's law
about CTAC | fact sheets | action alerts | how CTAC began
editorials | op-eds | articles & columns | state legislature documents  

WHY REFORM

Before Laura's Law was signed, California law forbade the provision of care to thousands overcome by mental illness, ignoring what has been learned about and the vastly improved medications developed for mental illnesses in the three decades since the original law was passed. The old law - which compared poorly to standards in many other states - championed the “right” to be sick over the right to be well. People rendered incapable of making rational decisions had to be an immediate danger to themselves or others before the law would permit any type of intervention - nothing could be done if a person overwhelmed by mental illness was not actively dangerous. Interventions were essentially limited to short inpatient stays. You no doubt have seen the results on our streets and in our headlines. Until Laura's Law was signed, California did not have the less intrusive mandated community treatment programs available in most states.


supporters | why reform? | guide to laura's law
about CTAC | fact sheets | action alerts | how CTAC began
editorials | op-eds | articles & columns | state legislature documents  

ABOUT THE CALIFORNIA TREATMENT ADVOCACY COALITION

Dr. E. Fuller Torrey on CTAC

About CTAC and how to join


supporters | why reform? | guide to laura's law
about CTAC | fact sheets | action alerts | how CTAC began
editorials | op-eds | articles & columns | state legislature documents  

FACT SHEETS

The California Treatment Advocacy Coalition (CTAC) is dedicated to helping those lost to the symptoms of severe mental illness. The Coalition is working to change California's laws so that they promote the care of those rendered incapable of making informed medical decisions by mental illness. CTAC has worked to support a reform of the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act (LPS), the hopelessly outdated legislation that governed when and how Californians who are overcome by mental illness can be placed in needed treatment. Their efforts have been a huge success, as Laura's Law was signed by the governor Sept. 28. More about CTAC ...


supporters | why reform? | guide to laura's law
about CTAC | fact sheets | action alerts | how CTAC began
editorials | op-eds | articles & columns | state legislature documents  

CTAC ACTION ALERTS AND STATEMENTS


supporters | why reform? | guide to laura's law
about CTAC | fact sheets | action alerts | how CTAC began
editorials | op-eds | articles & columns | state legislature documents  

NEWSPAPER EDITORIALS

"The sort of court-ordered treatment programs Laura's law would permit, far from confining people to oppressive hospitals, actually cut hospital admissions by more than half, reduce the number of people living on streets and in parks and help seriously mentally ill people stay on new medications. ... civil libertarians have fought fiercely to kill it in the committee. In fact, since its introduction more than two years ago, AB 1421 has been amended numerous times to provide comprehensive civil rights protections"
- Los Angeles Times editorial, "Last boost on Laura's Law," June 12, 2002


supporters | why reform? | guide to laura's law
about CTAC | fact sheets | action alerts | how CTAC began
editorials | op-eds | articles & columns | state legislature documents  

OPINIONS

"In California, you have the right to act crazy and destroy your life, and Marie Elise exercised that right …Unfortunately, she killed someone at the same time."

-
Dwight Bergquist, the last therapist of a Californian woman who suffers from bipolar disorder and is charged with murder. Read more
from this LA Times magazine story.


supporters | why reform? | guide to laura's law
about CTAC | fact sheets | action alerts | how CTAC began
editorials | op-eds | articles & columns | state legislature documents  

ARTICLES AND COLUMNS


supporters | why reform? | guide to laura's law
about CTAC | fact sheets | action alerts | how CTAC began
editorials | op-eds | articles & columns | state legislature documents  

OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS

See technical information on the bill from the CA legislature. Bill text, status, voting records, and analyses are available on the California Assembly website.

Governor Davis signed the law on September 28, 2002.


supporters | why reform? | guide to laura's law
about CTAC | fact sheets | action alerts | how CTAC began
editorials | op-eds | articles & columns | state legislature documents  

HOW CTAC BEGAN

A grassroots task force comprising mental illness advocates, physicians, constitutional lawyers, social workers and law enforcement officials unveiled a landmark white paper on February 16, 1999, on the need for reform in California's involuntary treatment laws.  LPS Reform: A New Vision for Mental Health Treatment Laws takes sharp aim at the inadequacies of the state's antiquated Lanterman-Petris-Short Act (LPS). 

WHITE PAPER LPS Reform: A New Vision for Mental Health Treatment Laws
LPS Reform Task Force, February 16, 1999

STATEMENT The Treatment Advocacy Center outlines its position on LPS reform in "California Must Strengthen LPS Act for Mentally Ill" 
Treatment Advocacy Center, February 16, 1999

STATEMENT The California Treatment Advocacy Coalition outlines specific reform initiatives in their statement "California Must Care For, Not Criminalize the Severely Mentally Ill"
California Treatment Advocacy Coalition, February 16, 1999


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The contents of TAC's website are copyrighted by the Treatment Advocacy Center unless otherwise indicated. All rights reserved and content may be reproduced, downloaded, disseminated, or transferred, for single use, or by nonprofit organizations for educational purposes only, if correct attribution is made. TAC is an I.R.C. � 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation. Donations are appreciated and are eligible for the charitable contribution deduction under the provisions of I.R.C. � 170. Please note that TAC does not accept funding from pharmaceutical companies or entities involved in the sale, marketing, or distribution of such products.

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