Posts Tagged: Eggman

Helping mentally ill people: The debate over ‘involuntary treatment’

A woman in a medical ward ponders her situation. (Photo: Boyloso, via Shutterstock)

by SIGRID BATHEN posted 05.18.2022

Lee Davis says flatly that without involuntary treatment for her raging psychosis, she would be dead. “It saved my life.” A mental health activist who chairs the Alameda County Mental Health Advisory Board, which advises the board of supervisors and county officials on mental health policy, Davis acknowledges hers is not a popular view among disability rights advocates,

Real change proves elusive in mental health care system

An illustration of the brain and potential links to instability -- including mental illness. Some elements provided by NASA.(Image: GrAI, via Shutterstock)

by SIGRID BATHEN posted 11.10.2021

Important legislation to improve California’s broken mental health system was passed this year, plus billions in new funding in the state budget — all aimed at stemming the tide of a growing crisis on California streets, in hospital ER’s, jails and prisons. But will it mean real change?

Keep the safeguards in California’s ‘End-of-Life’ law

An illustration of a terminally ill patient comforted by a relative. (Image: Lightspring, via Shutterstock)

by MARILYN GOLDEN posted 05.13.2021

OPINION: Assisted suicide is already legal in California through the so-called End-of-Life Option Act, narrowly passed by the California Legislature and signed by then-Governor Brown in 2015. The bill was opposed by both Democrat and Republican Assembly members and Senators, but passed during a contested Special Legislative Session on Medi-Cal funding.

Lawmakers send historic mental-health bills to Newsom

The state Capitol in Sacramento, the seat of California government. (Photo: Always Wanderlust, via Shutterstock)

by SIGRID BATHEN posted 09.03.2020

Landmark legislation to improve California’s notoriously fractured mental-health system has been passed and sent to the governor in the waning days of a chaotic legislative session disrupted by the COVID pandemic. “This package of legislation is a game-changer,” said Maggie Merritt, executive director of the Steinberg Institute.

Stronger ‘Laura’s law’ wins Assembly approval

Laura Wilcox, whose shooting death in Nevada County inspired "Laura's Law." (Family photo)

by SIGRID BATHEN posted 06.09.2020

Legislation to strengthen California’s 2002 “Laura’s Law,” which gives family members a legal tool to get treatment for their severely mentally ill relatives, has been approved 77-0 by the state Assembly, despite opposition from some California counties, behavioral health directors and a labor union representing employees in local mental-health programs.