In today’s episode, we finish our conversation with Adriana Ruelas and Adrienne Shilton from the Steinberg Institute. You can find the first half of our conversation here. Today we talk about SB 1113 and AB 1971.

https://soundcloud.com/capimpactca/episode-15-mental-health-legislation-rundown-part-2

They’re both interesting bills. SB 1113 would establish voluntary workplace mental health standards, meaning that the state of California would set standards for what would be in workplace mental standards, but companies could volunteer to adopt those standards.

AB 1971 is where we spend more time, however, and it’s the most controversial of the bills that we talked about. AB 1971 expands the definition of “gravely disabled” to “include a condition in which a person, as a result of a mental health disorder, is unable to provide for his or her basic personal needs for medical treatment, if the failure to receive medical treatments, as defined, results in a deteriorating physical condition that a medical professional, in her or her best medical judgment, attests in writing, will more likely than not, lead to death within 6 months.” In practical terms, this bill would make it easier for medical professionals to place someone under a 5150 hold.

In addition to legislation, we also talk with Lacey Mickleburgh who is a staff attorney at McGeorge School of Law’s Homeless Advocacy Clinic, which is part of McGeorge’s Community Legal Services about the services  that they’re providing and the interdisciplinary approach they take to helping those who are experiencing homelessness or those who are housing insecure here in the Sacramento region.

You can learn more about the individual bills that we talk about in the links above, and you can learn more about Steinberg Institute and the work they do here. And you can learn more about all of McGeorge’s legal clinics here.

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And last but not least, you can learn more about the Capital Center for Law and Policy at McGeorge School of Law here.