© 2024 KVPR | Valley Public Radio - White Ash Broadcasting, Inc. :: 89.3 Fresno / 89.1 Bakersfield
89.3 Fresno | 89.1 Bakersfield
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
78 new monthly members to go to reach our March goal! Start a new monthly gift today, or increase your existing monthly donation to help us reach the goal.

Two Valley Counties Split On 'Laura's Law' For Mental Health Treatment

Laura Wilcox

Following a mass shooting in the U.S., like last week’s attack on a nightclub in Orlando, there are often calls to improve mental health services. Two of the valley’s most populous counties are taking very different approaches on one key California law that advocates say could help more people receive treatment they otherwise wouldn’t seek.

Kern and Fresno Counties are at odds over something known as Laura’s Law.

Laura’s Law is named after Laura Wilcox who was killed by a mentally ill man in 2001.

It allows family members of people with documented mental health issues to ask the courts to mandate that a person receive mental health treatment.

However, since it was never funded by the state, only a few counties have pursued it.

One of those that did is Kern, where Brad Cloud is the Deputy Director of the Mental Health Department.

Cloud says 45 people have been referred under Laura’s Law since Kern County met the law’s service level requirements last October.

"With those people, we don't have to wait for that act to happen again" Brad Cloud, Kern County Mental Health Department

Those include increased staffing, round–the-clock services, and dedicated outreach coordinators.

“Well over half of the people, say with psychotic disorders, were actually able to engage with them and persuade them to come into service voluntarily.  Which was really wonderful I think we were a little surprised by that but we were really pleased with that result,” Cloud says.

Only one person is contesting their treatment.

That person will go before a judge and have the opportunity to explain why they believe they should not be required to be in treatment. That case could happen before the end of the month.

But Cloud says more importantly, Laura’s Law allows the county and family members to act before a mentally ill person harms themselves or someone else.

“With those people, we don’t have to wait for that act to happen again. The moment they stop treatment, we are allowed to do something about that,” Cloud says.

The state has told counties they can use money from the Mental Health Services Act to comply with the law. Cloud says it costs the county about $200,000 a year.

Fresno County, on the other hand is not pursuing the law. This frustrates mental health treatment advocates like Christina Roup with the Fresno chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

She says requiring treatment could be a big boost to the families of people with mental illness who often struggle to get help for their loved ones.

“You know, often I have conversations ‘Why? Why? Why? The big question is why. Why can’t there be intervention sooner? Why is there not an option for my loved one? Why does my family member have to live on the streets,” Roup says.

"it is a handful of people that actually go through the whole process and are compelled to enter outpatient treatment," Dawan Utecht, Fresno County Department of Behavioral Health

In those cases, Roup believes Laura’s Law could give those families that option to avoid, in her words, ‘falling through the cracks’.

She is aware that there is a perception that the law could lead to people being treated or medicated against their will but insists any treatment program would be created with the consent of the person.

This is only partly true, however, because if a person does not agree to some kind of treatment they could instead be institutionalized.

There are reasons Fresno County is not pursuing Laura’s Law according to the Head of the County Department of Behavioral Health Dawan Utech.

She says voluntary treatment simply works better and the impact of the law simply isn’t that great.

“And my understanding, from talking to other directors, is that what they are finding is that it is a handful of people that actually go through the whole process and are compelled to enter outpatient treatment,” Utecht says. 

Utecht says despite Fresno County not having Laura’s Law, the department has increased services to similar levels. So even without it, treatment options in the counties have improved.

And there is not even unified support for the law among mental health care providers.

Jassen Zeajian is a clinical psychologist who advocates against the law.

He says the public support is based around an incorrect assumption that those with mental illness, untreated or otherwise, is a violent threat to the public.

“I believe that society has it all wrong about this. They are chasing after windmills to try to satisfy the public fears,” Zeajain says.

He also adds that people who do agree to go to treatment after being referred under the law will just go through the motions and not find long term help.

Though the law is currently optional on a county by county basis, bills have been submitted in the California Legislature that would mandate application of the law statewide.

Jeffrey Hess is a reporter and Morning Edition news host for Valley Public Radio. Jeffrey was born and raised in a small town in rural southeast Ohio. After graduating from Otterbein University in Columbus, Ohio with a communications degree, Jeffrey embarked on a radio career. After brief stops at stations in Ohio and Texas, and not so brief stops in Florida and Mississippi, Jeffrey and his new wife Shivon are happy to be part Valley Public Radio.