Pro: Why Sit By When We Can Help?

A measure pending in the state Legislature would reform California’s antiquated involuntary treatment laws concerning mental illness. Sen. John Burton revels in his reputation as a champion of civil rights and protector of the people. Yet as chair of the Senate Rules Committee, he has thrown the democratic process to the wind by refusing to allow a lifesaving bill, AB 1800, a fair hearing in front of the Senate.

AB 1800, stalled in committee, would allow involuntary treatment of people with mental illness who are so terribly ill they cannot make rational choices themselves. In the late 1960s, the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, California’s involuntary treatment law, was passed. At the time, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder were not recognized as medical conditions. Instead, they were thought to be a “sane reaction to a insane society.” Nowadays we know that schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are as medical in nature as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. They are diseases of the brain that preclude some of their victims the privilege of exercising their civil liberties.

As a result, nearly 50,000 Californians with untreated mental illness are homeless; about 16% of state inmates are severely mentally ill; California police spend more time responding to mental health crises than to robbery calls; 10 to 15 times more suicides occur among those with untreated severe mental illness; and people with untreated severe mental illness are nearly three times more likely to be a victim of a violent crime.

Under California’s current law, those with untreated mental illness are allowed to commit suicide, be felled by heat prostration, slowly die from malnutrition, be killed in alleyways or kill others in what they delusionally believe is self-defense. All the while, we have effective treatment available.

I understand only too well the tragedy that befalls people when they do not receive treatment. Because of this “old-thought law,” my sister-in-law was not allowed the medical help that would have prevented her from killing her 78-year-old mother. Today she is in Patton State Hospital, one of the most restrictive treatment facilities we have in California.

The killing stole my mother-in-law’s life and my sister-in-law’s freedom. It also wasted scarce community resources. 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.

AB 1800 would provide a much-needed safety net for Californians, protecting our most vulnerable citizens and the communities in which they live. It would elevate the right to be healthy above the right to be psychotic.

There is nothing right or just about letting people live and die on California streets when they have a physical illness that easily can be treated.