Laura's Law
Laura's Law epitomizes many issues discussed on this website. Firstly, it is a representation of family advocacy. Laura Wilcox was 19 when she was shot by a severely mentally ill man while working in a mental institution in Nevada County, California in 2001. Her family, devastated by her death, pushed for the implementation of Laura's Law, a bill that "order[s] a small subset of people with serious mental illness who meet very narrowly defined criteria to accept treatment as a condition of living in the community" (mentalhealthpolicy.org). The goal that Laura's family had in mind was to prevent a tragedy like hers, or like Kelly Thomas', to occur again. The law's outline states that it aims to provide treatment for those incapable of choosing it for themselves and to prevent such individuals from falling into jails, prisons, or shelters. Thus far, Laura's law has been passed in Nevada County, Orange County (where Kelly Thomas was killed), and is being piloted in Los Angeles. These counties have seen positive results (more can be found on the law's website, which is linked in Resources), but controversy still affects the law's progress.
Concerns over forced treatment have been brought up by MindFreedom International, the psychiatric survivors movement, Citizens of Commission of Human Rights, and more. They not only question the true effectiveness of implementing such a law as well as the possible negative side effects of outpatient treatment, which most likely entail drug therapy. There is significant risk for patients with severe illnesses such as schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders as the often entail drugs that have a wide and worrying scope of side effects, particularly if they are viewed as dangerous and thus imperative to cure.
Although there are forces on both sides of support and opposition, Laura's Law has proved a number of important points. Family advocacy has the potential to be effective, and family advocacy branches from understanding. Laura's family decided to push for this bill not only because the man who killed her was decided not mentally fit for court, but also because Laura believed in helping the mentally ill, and they wanted to extend her legacy. Laura's Law also revealed what stigma has long kept hidden: as much as families try to keep mental illness within their house a secret, it is common throughout households, and therefore an important issue to consider in human and equal rights. Journalist John Moorlach remarked in an article, "...I was surprised at the number of individuals who told me stories about close relatives who had mental illness. This is not a topic that is often broached; we usually don't discuss these family secrets." Mental illness is more relevant than one might think; it is an integral part of modern society and affects the daily lives of the population, therefore it is important for the best suited advocates--families--to rise up and take action as Laura's family did.
Sources: Laura's Law Website Orange County Website, Laura's Law Wikipedia, Laura's Law Home Page on mentalillnesspolicy.org, Laura's Law can save lives of people with mental illnesses by John Moorlach