Supes Expand Program To Treat Mentally Ill Transients In Alameda County

ALAMEDA COUNTY, CA — The Alameda County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 Tuesday to expand to fully implement a pilot program that allows for the involuntary treatment of mentally ill people who aren't receiving mental health services. The state Legislature passed a bill in 2002 called Laura's Law that permits court-ordered outpatient treatment of people with a documented history of mental illness.

The law is named after Laura Wilcox, a mental health worker who was killed in Nevada County in 2001 by a man who had refused psychiatric treatment. However, it's up to each county to adopt the law and until
recently only a few counties had opted to implement it, although now more than 15 counties, including San Francisco, have done so.

Alameda County approved a pilot program on Dec. 15, 2015, for five people at a time. Proponents, such as Alameda County Board of Supervisors President Wilma Chan, say that the law is a humane way to provide services to mentally ill people who need them but aren't getting them. But opponents say the law would take away the rights of mentally ill people by forcing them into programs they don't want.

Chan said expanding the program "is a real difficult decision" but she said "it's another way to get people into the mental health system." Addressing the dozens of people who spoke against the program at a lengthy hearing Tuesday, Chan said, "We can't force people to take their medications and we don't lock them up."

But Supervisor Keith Carson, who cast the lone vote against expanding the program, said the county should also be expanding long-term programs for the mentally ill, such as the In-House Outreach Team, which
provides services to adults with mental illness with the intention of connecting them with psychiatric care and other services.

Carson said, "We have a responsibility not to take the easy way out and I'm fearful of this."

He said, "We're financing locked facilities.

Among those who spoke in favor of having Alameda County expand the program was a woman who said she was speaking on behalf of the parents of Daniel Dewitt, a man from Alameda who's now 28 and was charged with the murdering Peter Cukor at Cukor's home in the Berkeley hills in 2012.

Dewitt, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, pleaded no contest to first-degree murder and other charges but a judge then ruled that he was not guilty by reason of insanity. In 2015 Dewitt was committed to 33 years to life at a state mental hospital.

Fremont police Sgt. Paul McCormick said the program should be expanded because there's been "a dramatic shift" in the last 20 years from mentally ill people being treated in institutions to many of them being on
the streets, where police officers have to deal with them.

McCormick said many mentally ill people "are resistant to change or undergoing therapy and don't understand that they're sick."

Berkeley police Officer Jeff Shannon, who's also a licensed mental health professional, said, "There's been a precipitous increase in the number of contacts police officers have with people who have mental health
challenges but aren't being treated."

By Bay City News

Photo courtesy Renee Schiavone/ Patch