(March 12, 2014) When Matthew Hoff turned 18 he was free to make his own medical decisions, including discontinuing treatment for his bipolar disorder and other mental health problems. His parents tried unsuccessfully to get him back into treatment, but he wasn’t considered dangerous or gravely disabled enough.
"We worked hard to keep him safe. But then he turned 18 and we couldn't keep him safe anymore . . . It’s like watching your kid drown slowly," Matthew's mother, Jennifer Hoff, told the Los Angeles Times (“Kelly Thomas case prompts counties to take fresh look at Laura’s Law,” March 9).
Less than four months after turning 18, Matthew was arrested for the first time, entering a cycle of homelessness, incarceration, hospitalization, release and re-arrest. Matthew’s fourth encounter with the law occurred mere weeks after being released from a residential treatment facility for mentally ill teens; he walked into a bank and demanded $1,000 on a sticky note.
Now he is serving fifteen years in prison, much of which he spends in isolation. Hoff believes that Laura’s Law could have prevented her son’s deterioration by allowing court-ordered outpatient treatment to help him stay compliant with his treatment plan and stop him from cycling between hospitals and jails.
But it has been 12 years since California passed assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) and only Nevada County has fully implemented the law. Advocates and families like the Hoffs are pushing for expansion, saying that the law would reduce the number of people with severe mental illness who are incarcerated or homeless.
"It's hard for me to understand that anybody questions the value of it," Brian Jacobs, whose siblings suffer from schizophrenia, told the Times. "It's a horrible, horrible illness, and to leave people in psychosis on the streets is unconscionable, but we do it all the time."
Last year, California officials clarified that counties can use money from the Mental Health Services Act to fund the law, undercutting an oft-cited reason for not bringing the law to every county.
Now the rest of California needs to follow Nevada County’s example to protect people like Matthew Hoff and countless others like him.
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