Laura's Law won with 9-2 vote last Tuesday in San Francisco, California. Passing the legislation for the city was the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
This is only the initial approval. This means the court isn't fully allowed yet to send people with mental illness to an establishment for treatment. The objective of the legislation is to help sick people who are vulnerable and give support to their families.
Mark Farrell, a San Francisco legislator, first proposed the legislation. Farrell patterned the law after Laura's Law, which was passed way back in 1999 in the state of New York. The law was named after Laura Wilcox, a 19-year-old gunshot victim of a mentally ill patient. Laura was an intern at a behavioral clinic in Nevada county.
The state law allows a mental health professional, the police, or the family of a mentally ill patient to request and file a petition for the latter's treatment. At present, only three counties in California have passed the law: Yolo, Orange, and Nevada.
Not everybody in the state is happy with the decision. Some professionals working within the mental health care do not agree with the law.
"This is the wrong direction for any community but especially a progressive community like San Francisco," Executive Director of the Mental Health Association Eduardo Vega said.
He thinks that this news will promote the stigma. "There's no real doubt that this is a process that fosters stigma around mental illness," he told Reuters.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors have been debating on the issue for years.
Supervisor Mark Farrell and his co-supervisors are firm with the decision.
"Recent studies and reports show that over 40 million American adults have mental illnesses. People are falling through the cracks ... right here in San Francisco. We see it on the streets, in the community and in families every single day," Farrell said.
The law is controversial and it will continue to draw criticism from many groups. Within the Board, Supervisors John Avalos and Eric Mar, voted against the law and said the law could be abused by the people.
