Posts Tagged: LPS

Budget constraints would hit Californians with developmental disabilities hard

Image by Drazen Zigic

by AMY WESTLING posted 02.27.2024

OPINION – While we understand creative solutions are necessary to pull California out of its current budget situation, and we’re not the only community that could be hit hard with cuts and delays, the reality is that our state’s most vulnerable population is at risk. It’s critical policymakers and the Administration take a closer look at what programs and services they are considering and how those served would be impacted.

The Capitol Weekly interview: Sen. Susan Eggman’s long battle for mental health reform

Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman, Assemblymembers Kevin McCarty and Jay Obernolte. Image by Associated Press

by SIGRID BATHEN posted 09.11.2023

Widely regarded as the most knowledgeable and effective state legislator on mental health issues in the Legislature, Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton) is credited with major, bipartisan legislative accomplishments over nearly 12 years, first in the Assembly, now in the Senate, where she chairs the Senate Health Committee.

The growing push for major action on mental health and homelessness

Via Shutterstock

by BY SIGRID BATHEN posted 02.22.2023

A growing chorus of critics say well-intentioned but archaic laws – designed to protect individual rights, with stiff restrictions on what constitutes “grave disability” – prevent desperate families from getting severely mentally ill relatives into treatment, leaving them to suffer and die on the street.

The fall and rise of Roger Niello

Roger Niello in his office. Photo by Scott Duncan, Capitol Weekly

by BY RICH EHISEN posted 01.30.2023

When Roger Niello left the California Assembly in 2010, he figured his time in elected office had run its course. After all, the year before he had committed the most unforgivable of sins for a Republican of the day: He was among six of his fellow GOP colleagues who voted for a budget that included tax hikes, drawing the wrath of his party’s most vocal anti-tax contingent.

A deep dive into Newsom plan to overhaul mental health policy

Californnia Gov. Gavin Newsom, chatting with a homeless man in Fresno, has proposed a sweeping overhaul of California's mental health care system. (Photo: Governor's office)

by SIGRID BATHEN posted 03.24.2022

Newsom’s plan would create an entirely new system of civil court supervision, connecting individuals with intensive treatment and, equally important, housing. By his estimate, it would help 7,000-to-12,000 severely mentally ill people each year, many with chronic physical conditions that are worsened by life on the streets, clearly unable to care for themselves. It would not replace existing programs.

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?

Auditor slams state mental-health system, revives Laura’s Law

A troubled woman alone deals with issues alone. (Photo: Stokkete, via Shutterstock)

by SIGRID BATHEN posted 08.06.2020

A massive and highly critical state auditor’s report has given new life to legislation to deal with California’s notoriously troubled mental-health system. The shift comes as state lawmakers, convening amid the COVID-19 pandemic, face hundreds of bills in the closing days of the legislative session.