Public Education & Policy :: Archive

CNMHC News Alert, March 15, 2002

SB 1448 (Chesbro, Arcata) Is Introduced

Senator Wesley Chesbro has introduced SB 1448 to address the problem of the desecration and disrepair of the resting places of people with developmental and mental disabilities throughout the state. Over 20,000 patients have died and were buried at a state hospital or developmental center from the mid 1880's to 1960. Their remains are for the most part unmarked, in mass gravesites, where numbered markers have long ago disappeared.

This legislation emerged from a Hearing held by the Senate Select Committee on Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities on November 19, 2001 at NAPA State Hospital and after a year of organizing, research and education by the California Network of Mental Health Clients (CNMHC), Peer and Self Advocacy Unit of PAI, and Capitol People First groups. Senator Chesbro in a letter to other legislators requesting co-authors wrote, "I am proud to work in partnership with the California Network of Mental health Clients, Capitol People First, and the Peer and Self Advocacy Unit of Protection and Advocacy, Inc., in the development of this legislation." The CNMHC, with the other groups, is a co-sponsor of the legislation.

The intent of SB 1448 is to support persons with disabilities in their efforts to restore dignity to persons whose remains are buried in gravesites on state hospital and developmental center lands, and other places, through conducting inventories, developing restoration plans for gravesites and cemeteries, and creating very important protocols for the future internment of patients.

How we are treated in death is indicative of the way we were valued in life. By honoring and paying respect to people with mental and developmental disabilities who are dead, people with mental and developmental disabilities are reclaiming and honoring their present and future. We are reversing the discrimination that we faced and still face.

SB 1448 is scheduled to be heard at the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, on Wednesday, April 3, Room 4203. The Committee meets at 1:30. This is the first hearing for this bill, so it is important to demonstrate its support by your presence. Also, your cards and letters are essential. (See Attachment for the contact information for all of the members of the Senate Heath and Human Services Committee.)

Write letters/cards to:
Senator Debra Ortiz
Chair, Health and Human Services Committee
California State Senate
Room 2191
Sacramento, CA 95814

c.c. the author:
Senator Wesley Chesbro
State Capitol, Room 4081
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 445-3375
Fax (916) 323-6958

SB 1448 furthers the goals of the California Memorial Project:

To restore the cemeteries at state hospitals and developmental centers and other places where patients of these hospitals have been interred;

To record the stories of patients from inside state hospitals and developmental centers;

To document and memorialize the ex-patient/consumer/ survivor movement in California.

To learn more about SB 1448 or the California Memorial Project, contact:
Karen Zimmer, Project Coordinator, at the CNMHC Office: 1-800-626-7447 or e-mail her at: main@cnmhc.com or wildspirit@spiritsearch.com

Still Lurking
AB 1421 (Thompson, Davis) to be heard at the Senate Health and Human Services (H&HS).

Much of the public policy energy of the client community for the past 3 plus years has been fighting the expansion of forced treatment in California. This fight has repeatedly been chosen as our highest policy priority, commensurate with the momentum throughout the country to increase the ability to forcibly treat people with mental disabilities.

The effort in California to expand forced treatment has been repeatedly introduced by Assemblywoman Helen Thomson (D Davis), in the vehicles of AB 1028, AB 1800, and now AB 1421. AB 1421 would expand involuntary treatment through initiating an involuntary outpatient commitment program that greatly expands the criteria of who can be committed, the persons who can initiate commitment proceedings, while reducing the protective layers required for outpatient commitments.

The client community has stalled these efforts through attending en masse informational hearings and policy committee hearings; researching, writing and distributing position papers and information fact sheets; visiting and educating legislators and others; distributing News Alerts of important hearings and events; holding rallies; organizing at the local level; coalition forming, particularly participating in the CARES Coalition, (Coalition Advocating for Rights, Empowerment and Services); building public and media exposure and, most importantly, promoting alternative initiatives for voluntary community services.

However, the enemy is still lurking, ready to pounce anytime. AB 1421 passed the Assembly last year overwhelmingly. It was described then as a runaway bill. But the runaway bill ran into a wall of resistance, a rising groundswell of opposition, from the California Planning Council and the California Association of Local Mental Health Directors to the California Association of Social Rehabilitation Agencies and the California Psychological Association to Protection and Advocacy, Inc. and the California Association of Mental Health Patients Rights Advocates, from policy makers/administrators, to provides, to advocates. And, of course, the clients of the state, the people who would be directly affected by this policy based on coercion and fueled by false stereotypes and fear.

AB 1421 is waiting to be heard at the Senate Health and Human Services (H&HS). The hearing is expected to be in early May. Write/call/e-mail the H&HS Chair and members.

Senator Deborah Ortiz
Chairperson
Health and Human Services Committee
California State Senate
Room 2191
Sacramento, CA 95814

Keep in touch with the CNMHC office for the Hearing date and time. Plan to come to Sacramento for the Hearing.

Housing Bonds include Housing for People with Disabilities - SB 1227 (Burton)

Affordable housing that maximizes independent living, with assistance when desired, was voted a public policy priority by the CNMHC membership. To address the affordable housing crisis in California, SB 1227 provides $2.1 Billion in housing bonds. Included in this measure, for the first time in any housing bond, is $195 million for supportive housing for people with disabilities. In a year in which California faces a 12.5 billion deficit, this bond measure may be the year's most significant step toward our goal of a community support system that values independence and integrated living.

Homelessness is from lack of housing, not mental disability, although mental wellness may not be possible without housing.

SB 1227 is on the floor of the Assembly for a vote. It needs 2/3 majority to pass. Call, write or e-mail your Assembly representative immediately.