For the Ill--for All of Us

On Tuesday the state Senate Judiciary Committee’s seven members will decide what to do about AB 1421, a vital but long-postponed bill that outgoing Assemblywoman Helen Thomson (D-Davis) has intrepidly pushed since 1998.

The bill, which would let judges order outpatient treatment for seriously mentally ill people who can’t fathom the gravity of their condition, was named “Laura’s law” last year, after a 19-year-old killed by a man whose mental illness had been left untreated.

Since then, similar preventable tragedies have occurred all too often in states that lack outpatient commitment programs. In a Salt Lake City courtroom last week, Michael Gall described how his brother Lenny, after refusing to take medications to control his psychotic delusions, killed their mother with an ax. Michael said his mother had spent years seeking help for Lenny but had been told that he could not be forced to take medications to control his delusions and bipolar disorder.

In a town near Austin, Texas, Linda Akin’s family repeatedly tried to find treatment for her schizophrenia before she took her mother’s life last month. “We’d talk to doctors,” her father said, “and they wouldn’t put her in the state hospital because ... she wasn’t making threats.”

That same week, at a hearing in Portland, Kathryn Howard said Oregon’s civil commitment laws had contributed to her brother’s fatal shooting of their mother. “All of us in the courtroom feel like we’re watching a train wreck and there’s nothing we can do,” Howard said. She recalled what happened to her schizophrenic brother when he was taken to the hospital after threatening to kill their mother two years ago. “The hospital could not keep him there because he did not want to stay, even though the people at the hospital told us that he was, indeed, dangerous.... They said, ‘Just try to keep him away from sharp objects.’ ”

We support the efforts of lawmakers who, aware that the majority of people with mental illness are no more dangerous than someone with eczema, have repeatedly amended Thomson’s bill to provide comprehensive civil rights protections. But a lobby of advocates for the rights of the mentally ill is intent on preserving a status quo that we consider tragic. It is demanding that the bill restrict eligibility for the new program to people who meet California’s rigid “5150 standard.” That part of the state’s Welfare and Institutions Code allows involuntary treatment only for those who are in imminent danger of harming themselves or others.

Laura’s law won’t mean much unless it goes beyond helping “5150s” and embraces others who are clearly sick, in need of help and unable to make rational decisions concerning treatment.

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To Take Action: Sen. Martha Escutia (D-Whittier), chairwoman, Judiciary Committee, phone (916) 327-8315; fax (916) 327-8755.