TO: California Treatment Advocacy Coalition

FROM: Carla Jacobs, Randall Hagar, Chuck Sosebee & Mark Gale

DATE: April 28, 2010

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Building Coalitions

Whether through a personal family experience or on the job, most people have some connection to mental illness. They are families, churches, business people, neighbors, community groups. One such natural supporter is law enforcement. 

Read one Police Chief's experience with Assisted Outpatient Treatment in New York. Michael Biasotti -- Police Chief, Vice President of the NYS Association of Chiefs of Police, and family member of a Kendra's Law (New York's assisted outpatient treatment law) recipient -- recently urged state lawmakers to pass a current  bill to make New York's law permanent.  As is customary in New York, Kendra's Law is up for renewal.

With both a professional and a personal stake in the future of assisted outpatient treatment in New York, Chief Biasotti has a unique perspective on the choice facing the NYS Legislature.  Here is an excerpt:

Being court-ordered to accept treatment - and having the mental health system ordered to deliver it - has been at minimum a dream come true, and possibly a life-saving experience for my family. It lifted a seriously mentally ill young woman from being isolated and psychotic as a result of not believing she's ill and refusing treatment, to being in school, learning a trade and living semi-independently. And she is not the exception. 

What You Can Do To Help

• Reach out to individuals in your community to help you pass a resolution in your county to adopt Laura's Law .
• Ask community groups to write a letter of support and send to savelives@treatmentadvocacycenter.org