Marin debuts two-year Laura's Law pilot after years of resistance
Marin Independent JournalSep 20, 2018
"I really want to thank you for finally putting this program together after 11 long years," said
For more than a decade, Alexander and many
Signed into law by Gov.
Laura's Law targets those who are too ill to recognize they need treatment. While outpatient treatment can be ordered, medication cannot.
As recently as
At Colfax's recommendation, supervisors opted instead to put more resources into mental health outreach teams. At the time, only Supervisor
After that, Alexander and other Laura's Law advocates stepped up their lobbying efforts. They collected 11,000 signatures on a petition calling on supervisors to adopt the law and succeeded in making it an issue in the race for
Alexander said that while she is grateful the county is rolling out a program, she is doubtful about the
In his report to supervisors Tuesday, Africa put the emphasis on how the county could minimize the number of court petitions necessary through use of "assertive engagement" with the mentally ill. Africa said he had consulted with providers of mental health services in
"We know that assertive engagement can decrease the number of court petitions," Africa told supervisors. "This really is the goal, to get people to voluntarily seek treatment."
After the meeting, Africa explained that under the assertive engagement he was talking about health practitioners would spend much longer, perhaps months, trying to convince mental health sufferers to accept treatment before proceeding with the court process.
Alexander said, "That is definitely a concern of ours. That so much time gets spent on engagement that the person never gets brought into court. There needs to be some policy on how many times you engage with someone before you try the court piece."
Even though the pilot program launched more than two weeks ago, there is no information about it available on the county's website. Africa said so far the county has received one referral.
Referrals may be made by family members over 18, an adult living with a severely mentally ill person, or a mental health caregiver. The phone number to call is 415-473-4321.
Africa told supervisors Tuesday he expects the number of referrals to vastly exceed the number of people who will qualify for the program under the law.
To be eligible, a person must be 18 or older, have serious and persistent mental illness, be unlikely to survive in the community without supervision, and have a history of refusing treatment.
In addition, the person's illness must have resulted in psychiatric hospitalization or incarceration two or more times within the past 36 months or have made threats or committed acts of serious and violent behavior towards themselves or others within the past 48 months.
Africa said the county initially estimated that only five
Supervisor
Rice said the county has built up its mental health services so that the people who fail to qualify under Laura's Law will be able to get more help regardless.
___
(c)2018 The Marin Independent Journal (Novato, Calif.)
Visit The Marin Independent Journal (Novato, Calif.) at www.marinij.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.