(Aug. 17, 2017) The Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to proceed with planning for a Laura’s Law pilot program. The vote was unanimous though two supervisors indicated some lingering doubts about whether the program would work. The decision means that the mental health department will begin developing a plan for a Laura’s Law pilot program to be completed by the spring of 2018. The Board will then vote on whether to proceed and adopt Laura’s Law, which would make it the nineteenth California county to move forward with either a pilot or a full program.
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| Jo Lambert’s sister Elizabeth pictured prior to symptoms (top left), at the height of her untreated illness (top right), following treatment in Nevada County (bottom left), and Elizabeth’s young son at her grave (bottom right). |
This vote is a victory for the county’s tireless mental health advocates and family members who have long called for assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) in Stanislaus County. With this new tool to enable treatment access for those who lack insight into their need for treatment, family members hope for better outcomes for their loves ones and a new way to prevent the needless criminalization of serious mental illness.
Jo Lambert, whose sister Elizabeth died in October of 2015, wants Laura’s Law to prevent other families from having to experience the pain her family has gone through due to their inability to keep her sister on medication under an all-voluntary system of mental health access.
“Stanislaus County couldn’t help Elizabeth before it was too late. When she was in the Nevada County jail, she finally received treatment and improved. Right after she was released and returned to Stanislaus County, we were able to celebrate Elizabeth’s last birthday at our family home, with the person we had known but whom we hadn’t seen in years. But in Stanislaus County, there was no way to keep her on her medication and she quickly stopped taking it. She died two months later, leaving behind a two year-old child. I am working to get Laura’s Law adopted in Elizabeth’s memory.”
The law was named after Laura Wilcox a university student who, along with two others, was shot to death by a man with untreated schizophrenia while she was volunteering in a mental health clinic during a winter break. The law was passed to provide an avenue to treatment for individuals most at risk for victimization, violence, incarceration, and homelessness because they struggle to accept or stay in treatment.
Visit our Laura’s Law page for useful tips and information about the law.