Introduce myself
•    Personal experience mental health system
•    Organizing background – ask for show of hands of who has been harmed by the mainstream “mental health” system
•    Where this info came from/non expert
•    Hopes for developing workshop
o    Community Knowledge-building
Group go-round introduction
•    Name
•    what you hope to get out of the workshop
•    keep brief
Workshop Agreements – post so participants/newcomers can see
•    Confidentiality
•    Non-judgement/amnesty
•    Step up/step back
•    Expect unfinished business
•    Speak from own experience
•    Don’t interrupt
Agenda Review
History
•    It used to be that anyone could get someone else committed indefinitely
o    Criminalization, forced shock therapy
o    Lanterman-Peteris-Short Act (LPS) 1968
o    To end the inappropriate, indefinite and involuntary commitment of mentally disordered persons
o    This gave people being held in a mental facility the right to legal council
•    Move from Institutions to community care, but funding didn’t follow – Reagan governor
•    There was a movement to change this 1970s Mental Health Patients’ Self Help Movement
o    Rich history – exclusion of non-patients, self empowerment, advocacy
o    Insane Liberation Front
o    Resources: The Ex-Patients' Movement: Where We've Been and Where We're Going, By Judi Chamberlin
•    The Journal of Mind and Behavior/ National Empowerment Center website
o    Justice for women, people of color, children
•    State has to provide mental health care – mostly provided at the county level – when the budget is tied up $ doesn’t always get there.
•    Counties mandated amount of board and care homes
o    Trend in mental health is community care
o    mostly nonprofits or for profit businesses. That is why the system is so hard to navigate
o    Licensing follows up on facilities
o    mostly nonprofits or for profit businesses – “Telecare” privatization
•    Funding
o    Medical
o    Proposition 63, the Mental Heath Services Act (MHSA), 2004
•    1% tax on personal income above $1 million
•     expand county mental health programs.
o    About Icarus
What do we have
•    Different Facilities in Humboldt County
o    Group brainstorm, harvest observations on positive/negative experience
•    Important terms - Cal. Welf. & Inst. Codes
o    Short Term
•    In crisis
•    Goal is stabilization
o    Long Term
•    diagnoses and treatment, where patient can’t be treated properly in an outpatient setting
•    Outpatient
o    any kind of care where you are still living out in the community
o    Can range from getting meds at open door clinic to living in a board and care home, but still going out to community events, etc.
o    Inpatient
•    24 hour supervision in a hospital setting
•    Voluntary
o    There can be voluntary & Involuntary inpatient & outpatient
o    “willing and able to accept treatment on a voluntary basis”
o    not a danger/gravely disabled
o    are a danger, but willing to accept treatment
•    Rights
?    can leave at any time
?    right to voluntarily accept/refuse meds
?    Capacity/Riese hearing
•    You have to agree that you are mentally ill
•    You have to listen and understand the benefits of meds
•    Prove that you have a rational thought process
•    Advocate/judge
?    give informed consent to meds
•    don’t have the hearing rights/due process of involuntary
•    Involuntary/ The 5150 process  72-hold
o    Questions you’ll get asked when you go into an inpatient mental facility
•    Do you want to hurt yourself?(DTS)
?    Basically any thoughts of harm. Your will is irrelevant.
?    If you want to get out don’t say anything else suicidal while you’re there
•    Do you want to hurt others? (DTO)
•    Are you psychologically stable enough to meet your basic needs.
?    You can have someone come to the clinic and say they will provide you with food, clothing and shelter
?    If you are houseless they might not even ask if you can take care of yourself. They may just decide that.
•    State constitutional powers for commitment
o    police powers – public safety
o    Parens Patie, state is the father, judges if you are able to feed, clothe and shelter yourself.
•    Who can take you into custody
o    peace officer
o    member of the hospital staff
o    member of a "mobile crisis team"
o    any professional person designated by the county’s board of supervisors
•    TIP Explain that you are in pain, but that you don’t want to die or hurt yourself, that’s why you are there.
•    Doctors will ask for a name for collateral info to verify you’re okay
o    Have an emergency contact list
•    After 72 hours you’ll be let go or kept.
•    5250 can be for up to 14 days
o    you’ll be in an Acute Psychiatric Stability Unit
o    You will have a doctor who sees you 5 min/day
o    they will use meds and discharge planning
o    They usually see your mental health problem as an incurable disease and they will manage the symptoms
o    most don’t offer therapy groups – SV does
o    Probable cause Hearing
•    due process
•    within 4 days
•    You will get a patient’s rights advocate who has to advocate for what you want Jim Snow (707) 268-2995,
•    doctor who can say you probably need to stay
•    You have the right to hear evidence against you and respond
•    Private lawyers aren’t that helpful, because they don’t understand the system
o    If it’s determined that there’s no reason to keep you, you go back out into the community
•    Recertification another 14 days – no hearing
•    Additional 30 days another hearing
•    Writ of habeas corpus public defender
What are our rights in the Mental health system
•    What the state has to do
o    Provide services and oversight
•    Confidentiality (AB1420)
•    You can decide who gets info about you while you’re in
•    Anyone can call and give info about you
•    Read rights from handbook *http://camhpra.org/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15&Itemid=16
•    Any time you are 5150 or 5250 you loose the right to bear arms for 5 years. You can appeal this with the DOJ
•    What can we do if our rights have been violated
o    Contact someone within the mental health system
o    Contact an advocacy group
o    Try to take legal action against the state
o    Do direct action
o    Stop participation
o    Create alternatives
•    Advanced Directives
o    CA does not have a PAD statute
o    It can be helpful, but there’s also a lot of murkiness around it
What do we need
•    Resources that we would like to have – group brainstorm
Closing
•    Individual visualization of something you want to do to empower yourself in regards to the mental health system
•    Contact sign-up sheet for Icarus
•    Donation for Icarus resources