California Legislative Updates

From CSAP's Government Affairs Committee Chairwoman Emily Wood: CSAP remains committed to: Protecting the treatment decisions that are made in collaboration between a patient and their psychiatrist Supporting legislation and regulations that emphasize substance misuse prevention and treatment Parity of mental health and substance use care with other types of [...]

"BRITNEY SPEARS CAN BE CONSERVED, AND MARK RIPPEE CANNOT?" The memorial of Mark Rippee, a blind, mentally ill homeless man, was held last week in Solano County. Mark died homeless in his hometown on November 29. It was noted by a Sacramento Bee reporter that Senator Eggman was the one state official [...]

SCPS member and CSAP Board Member Rod Shaner was interviewed recently for an article in the LA Times, Why California's much-touted CARE Court is 'no one-and-done program'. The article discusses the roll out of the CARE Act, setting expectations, and how it will be constrained by the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act. Below are [...]

Earlier this week, Paul Yoder and I were able to attend a round table discussion hosted by the Steinberg Institute to start a dialogue about how we can establish a mental health “right to care” in California. A truly multidisciplinary group of folks representing providers across the behavioral health continuum [...]

Should Housing, Mental Health and Substance Use Services Be a Right in California? The Steinberg Institute and its founder, Darrell Steinberg, has invited CSAP to participate in a conversation about what it would take in California to make mental health and substance use services an entitlement for all those who [...]

The Legislature Leading into the general election, the California State Senate had 31 Democrats and 9 Republicans. The State Assembly had 60 Democrats, 19 Republicans, and 1 Independent. After the election, the Democratic supermajorities will remain. However, with at least thirty-three new members (not including flipped seats), a lot of [...]