(July 15, 2014) The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to implement Laura’s Law countywide today, making it the third major California county – and the largest – to embrace court-ordered treatment as a tool for making treatment possible to individuals with severe mental illness who are too ill to seek help for themselves.
A year ago, Los Angeles was running a small but successful pilot assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) program and only Nevada County was operating a countywide program.
What a difference a year makes.
In the last two months, San Francisco and Orange counties have voted to implement Laura’s Law. In June, Yolo County implemented its use.
With the Los Angeles supervisors’ vote, more than half of California’s population now will live where assisted outpatient treatment is available to individuals who qualify under the state’s strict criteria, which include a history of non-compliance, hospitalization and/or violence to self or others.
“The scales have finally tipped in favor of providing treatment before tragedy,” said Doris A. Fuller, executive director of the Treatment Advocacy Center. “The calls of families rendered optionless and the mentally ill abandoned to our streets, jails and prisons are finally compelling legislators to implement laws that provide timely and effective treatment.”
California was unique in the United States when it included in Laura’s Law a requirement that each county opt in with a vote by its Board of Supervisors. With the Los Angeles vote, five California counties have fully implemented the law, but families in the state’s other 53 counties are still without access to this proven method of supporting recovery from the most severe mental illness and saving taxpayer dollars.
Nevada County, which implemented Laura’s Law in 2008, estimates it saves $1.81 for every $1 invested. A recent study in New York, where every county has implemented its version of Laura’s Law, found that mental health services could be expanded beyond AOT participants with the savings from these high utilizers of public systems staying in treatment.
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