Public Education & Policy :: News Alerts

News Alert, March 2006

Threat of Involuntary Outpatient Commitment Is Back

AB 2357 (Karnette and Yee) [Assisted Outpatient Mental Health Treatment] will be heard by the Assembly Health Committee on April 4, 2006.

This bill is designed to repeal the "sunset clause" of AB 1421.

This renewal of the expansion of forced treatment issue is ill advised during the promise of system transformation that CA is now experiencing under the new Mental Health Services Act. The Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General states, "One point is clear: the need for coercion should be reduced significantly when adequate services are readily accessible to individuals with severe mental disorders who pose a threat of danger to themselves or others." The Little Hoover Commission agrees, and urges an "assessment of how improved access to voluntary treatment could diminish the need for involuntary treatment," before implementing options that would increase forced treatment. With the passage of Prop 63, the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA), California is moving in the direction of making adequate services readily accessible to Californians with mental disabilities, of improving access to voluntary services. The CA Network of Mental Health Clients (CNMHC) urges the legislature to give this new approach a chance. The Surgeon General's Report further states, "Almost all agree that coercion should not be a substitute for effective care that is sought voluntarily". Why substitute coercion (by passing legislation that would make AB 1421 permanent) for the promise of the MHSA, a mental health system based on effective care that is sought voluntarily.

The MHSA has brought the mental health community together for a common goal. The introduction of AB 2357 threatens to destroy this consensus of the mental health stakeholders that has been forged in the development, promotion and implementation of the MHSA. The MHSA has spurred a unique collaboration among mental health statewide. In unity is our success in building a transformed mental health system; in divisiveness will lie our failure.

AB 1421 was an incorrect answer to an inadequate mental health system. In California, that system is now changing. The environment that created the perceived need for AB 1421 is changing. In fact, other States are beginning to reject outpatient commitment. In 2005, Outpatient Commitment was proposed in New Mexico, and died on the floor of the legislature. Transformation, promoted by the President's New Freedom Commission's Achieving the Promise: Transforming Mental Health Care in America, is now sweeping the country. Federal transformation grants have been awarded to States' mental health divisions. In California, the MHSA promises just such a transformation of our mental health system, with services that transcend outdated and stigmatizing reactions to people with mental disabilities. Outpatient Commitment is an outdated and stigmatizing reaction to people with mental disabilities; it looks backwards, not forwards. Whereas the traditional system has used coercion and force in its attempt to solve problems, a transformed system will create options that maximize client self-determination and autonomy, goals of the MHSA. The implementation of the MHSA supports a new direction for mental health services, not the same old - unsuccessful - answers. Making AB 1421 permanent by lifting the sunset clause implies support for the same old answers and is antithetical to the immanent changes throughout the country. Outpatient Commitment is an Old Idea Whose Time Has Passed.

Choice is so important a concept to human kind and human dignity, that medical interventions, with only the exception of psychiatric, are soundly based on choice, including extensive consent policies and procedures. Informed choice about treatment and control over one's own individualized path to health, is necessary for recovery. Treatment and civil rights are not antithetical to each other; in fact, good treatment can only occur in an atmosphere of choice and freedom. Choice is Essential for Recovery.

The Authors contact information: Betty Karnette (D-Long Beach) State Capitol Room 2176 phone # 916-319-2054 and Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) State Capitol Room 3173 phone # 916-319-2012. These members of the Assembly and their staffs need to be made aware of the concerns of clients statewide.

More information can be obtained by contacting the CA Network of Mental Health Clients.

The hearing will be on Tuesday April 4, 2006 at 1:30 pm in State Capitol Room 444. Please attend if possible.

With the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA), California is moving in the direction of making adequate services readily accessible to Californians with mental disabilities, of improving access to voluntary services. The CA Network of Mental Health Clients (CNMHC) urges the legislature to give this new approach a chance.

In unity is our success in building a transformed mental health system; in divisiveness will lie our failure.

Outpatient Commitment is an Old Idea Whose Time Has Passed.

Choice is Essential for Recovery.