Public Education & Policy :: Archive

CNMHC News Alert, April 10, 2001

The Threat Continues:

AB 1421 (Thomson, Davis) has been amended into an expansion of forced treatment and involuntary outpatient commitment bill.

A new bill has been introduced that promotes the expansion of forced treatment as an answer to the lack of services in the community. People with mental disabilities are being blamed and victimized for this lack of services. Treatment and freedom are not antithetical: good treatment can only occur in an environment of choice and freedom. The threat to our rights and to services that enable recovery continues. With this bill, the net of commitment is greatly expanded and could entangle any of us.

Some Components of AB 1421:

• Targets people wherever they are, in the hospital or the community.
  
  
• Focuses commitment criteria on a prediction of future "deterioration" and a diagnosis, returning to the need for treatment standard for commitment.
  A major shift toward civil rights in the last thirty years has been to base commitment on behavioral standards. Commitment criteria are also vague and undefined.
  
  
• Permits family and many friends to file petitions for an order authorizing involuntary outpatient commitment: roommates, parents, spouse, siblings or children 18 years or older. Friends and loved ones become police persons.
  
  
• In some cases, allows for a hearing to proceed without the person who is the subject of the hearing - targeting homeless people who are hard to find and for whom transportation is a problem.
  
  
• In some cases, appears to allow a hearing to proceed without an examination of the subject of the hearing (if the person has refused to be examined).
  
  
• Noncompliance of the court order can initiate a 72 hour hold, changing current emergency commitment (5150) criteria. This seriously undermines the civil rights protections of current statute and calls into question the constitutional guarantee to liberty.
  
  
• The period of Involuntary Outpatient Commitment is up to six months, and may be followed by an additional six months.
  
  
• Establishes a "voluntary negotiated settlement" for which the person who is the subject of the petition waives his/her right to a hearing. The "settlement" entails entering into the same program that court ordered people enter; and noncompliance can initiate a 72 hour hold in a hospital as well as the possibility of further incarceration. It appears that the only difference in a "voluntary negotiated settlement" and a court ordered involuntary outpatient commitment is no hearing.
  
  
• The Involuntary Outpatient Commitment treatment plan must be an ACT program and the treatment plan does not include the court ordered person in its development.
  
  

On a Fast Track:

Scheduled for hearing at the Assembly Health Committee: Tuesday, April 17, 1:30 pm in Room 4202 of the Capitol, Sacramento.

Possibly to be scheduled for hearing at the Assembly Judicial Committee on Tuesday, April 24, 9 am in Room 4202 of the Capitol, Sacramento.

Although this bill is very complex with far reaching ramifications that affect people's civil and treatment rights, it is on a fast track. The author should be urged to allow time for the public to examine and understand the bill.

What Can You Do

• Write letters to the Assembly Health Committee and Assembly Judicial Committee.
  
  
• Encourage your organization to write a letter.
  
  
• Fax letters to the Health Committee. Letters must be received by the Health. Committee quickly to be documented in the Legislative Analysis. (The Analysis lists the organizations that support, oppose and take other stands.)
  
  
• Attend the hearings. Your presence is important. We must let the legislators and mental health community know that we will continue to fight for our rights and recovery.
  
  
• Come to a RALLY Against the Expansion of Forced Treatment and for Voluntary Community Services on Thursday, April 26, 10 - 4 pm, at the North side of the State Capitol, 11th and L Streets. Time is set aside for you to visit your local legislator.
  
  

For more information, please contact the California Network of Mental Health Clients. 1-800-626-7447; fax: 916-443-4089; e-mail: main@cnmhc.com.