‘Waiting for Danger’: An Emotional Day of Testimony Regarding California’s Lanterman-Petris-Short (LPS) Act
By Treatment Advocacy Center News
The California Assembly Health and Judiciary committees hosted a full-day hearing on ways to improve the Lanterman-Petris-Short (LPS) Act, California’s statute governing civil commitment and conservatorship for grave disability, on Dec. 15. Together, both in-person and remotely, Treatment Advocacy Center staff and grassroots partners made sure the voices of family members of people with severe mental illness (SMI) were not ignored.
Treatment Advocacy Center distributed an action alert ahead of the hearing making it easy for our California grassroots partners to submit written testimonies in one click. Thank you to the 81 advocates who shared their heartfelt stories of first-hand experience with the devastating impact this outdated law has on those California residents who need it most.
On the day of the hearing, Treatment Advocacy Center staffers live-tweeted highlights. Senior Family Liaison Kathy Day attended the hearing in-person and live-tweeted about the emotional impact that the LPS Act has on families, caregivers, and those with SMI. Research Associate Kelli South live-tweeted about the policy impact the LPS Act has on Californians with SMI and their families.
Over the course of the nine-hour hearing, lawmakers heard from a lineup of over 30 speakers followed by 25 members of the public. Treatment Advocacy Center Board Member Randall Hagar spoke from a provider’s perspective on policy changes necessary to make the LPS Act workable. “Our LPS system is crisis-driven and treatment failure-driven,” he said. “When we make a system that depends on waiting for danger, for many people, it’s too late.” Family members and advocates Teresa Pasquini, representing the California chapter of National Alliance on Mental Illness, and Susan Shaw Goodman delivered powerful testimony on the horrors their sons with SMI experienced within the California mental health system. “The criminal justice system is where we ‘house’ people with SMI in California,” said Pasquini. “There has been nothing civil or right about my son’s care in California.” Family members protested outside the State Capitol during the scheduled lunch break.
Treatment Advocacy Center will be submitting written testimony next week that will specifically address issues that came up during the hearing. We are pleased to see lawmakers in California making a concerted effort to finally reform the LPS Act and address many of the issues that were identified in taskforce reviews in 1999 and 2012 and, more recently, in the 2020 State Auditor report. We look forward to working with lawmakers on legislation to ensure that people with the most severe psychiatric illness in California can be served by the LPS Act.
Interested in learning more about the LPS Act? Access the background paper prepared for the hearing and find the video recording of the hearing here. If you are a resident of California and haven’t submitted testimony yet, we encourage you to do so! Our campaign will remain active through Dec. 23.
--Clara Keane