State Legislature Addresses Problems in Services for Mentally Ill

Following up on a critical mental health report released by the Little Hoover Commission, Assembly member Helen Thomson (D-Davis), chair of the Health Committee, said at a Tuesday hearing that the study, titled "Being There: Making a Commitment to Mental Health", would be used to institute reform and not be set aside like other studies that have "documented 30 years of broken promises to the mentally ill," the Scripp-McClatchy/Contra Costa Times reports. Thomson said during a special legislative panel session that the Legislature would use the "broad recommendations" from the report, which detailed the "failures" of California's mental health treatment services, to enact "specific legislation for reform." She added, "Let me be the first to assure you, this report is not going on a shelf." According to the Times, the report said that "it is painfully clear" that California has failed on its "commitment" to provide community-based treatment for the mentally ill after they were removed from psychiatric hospitals. The Times reports that some "immediate needs" to improve care for those with mental illness include a "greater supply of transitional housing," better coordination between law enforcement and mental health experts and "greater state assistance to counties that directly provide care" (Herdt, Scripps-McClatchy/Contra Costa Times, 2/1).