You may be familiar with the axiom—or a variation thereof—Do not mistake movement with progress.
California state legislators and the governor would have been well-advised to have taken that bit of advice to heart before they passed Senate Bill 43 in October.
The amendment, in essence, broadens the scope and makes it easier for an individual to be involuntary detained and placed under a psychiatric hold.
The conditions for detaining someone prior to the legislative change narrowly defined the condition under which someone could be held against their will as someone who was “gravely disabled” because of a mental health disorder or impairment caused by chronic alcoholism.
Under the new guidance someone gravely disabled suffers “a condition in which a person, as a result of a mental health disorder, a severe substance use disorder, or a co-occurring mental health disorder and a severe substance use disorder, is unable to provide for their basic personal needs for food, clothing, shelter, personal safety, or necessary medical care.”
The change appears to be altruistic in addressing the needs of the mentally ill who are in dire need of treatment, and practical in terms of removing from the streets the people too many of us have come to regard as inconvenient blights.
There is no denying there are better ways to help people than by expanding the circumstances under which they are corralled into compulsory treatment. Human Rights Watch in July advocated investing more money in voluntary and community-based treatment programs.
But that time has past and now counties throughout California are faced with having an influx of patients taken to hospitals in an effort to force them into treatment that may or may not work, starting in the new year.
County Supervisor Nora Vargas, however, recently indicated she would ask her colleagues to delay implementation of the requirement until 2025 (despite the fact that counties can postpone implementation until 2026). Hospitals and treatment facilities need to have all the tools and resources in place before they begin the monumental task of fixing once again another social problem. She wants to move ahead carefully and it appears she is wisely not mistaking movement with progress.
