Community Calls For Treatment Instead of Jails

A MEDIA ADVISORY
From: The Coalition on Homelessness
For more information, contact Jennifer Friedenbach (415) 346-3740,
HUNDREDS "DIE-IN" PROTEST OVER
CRIMINALIZATION OF MENTAL ILLNESS
Community Calls For Treatment Instead of Jails

SAN FRANCISCO (Tuesday, December 12, 2000) -- On Tuesday, December 12, 2:00 p.m. protesters will gather at Civic Center Plaza to protest the City's continued criminal negligence of people with mental health issues. Mental health consumers and their supporters will attend the protest, and demand that in light of this economy, there is no need to continue forsaking mental health services. The lack of mental health treatment has meant that individuals end up at the hands of the police, are locked up at the hospital and in jails, or end up dead.

The Coalition on Homelessness is calling for humane procedures when dealing with people with mental illnesses. These include a demand for full implementation of Police Crisis Intervention, a training program for police on how to respond to people with mental illnesses. The SFPD received funding for this program last year, but has thus far refused to implement it. Protesters will also be demanding no implementation of involuntary outpatient commitment, and consumer directed mental health treatment on demand.

Mental health services have been slowly chipped away at over the past three decades, and the result is thousands of people with mental health issues being denied services and living on the streets. Last year, the Department and the Mayor's office proposed severe cuts to the mental health system, and conceded at the last minute to restore only some of the cuts, due to intense community pressure.

At the same time, 1 in 4 police calls are for responses to people with mental health issues or "bizarre behavior". The nations prisons and jails held an estimated 283,800 people with mental illnesses in 1998, and homelessness was more double among people with mental illnesses than among others.

According to Marykate Connor, Director of Caduceus Outreach Services "Given the advances in psychiatric treatment, it should be unacceptable in this economy that anyone should suffer, become homeless, incarcerated or die due to the effects of a treatable condition simply because they are poor. "

The Coalition on Homelessness issued a report last spring, entitled "Locked Out", outlining the shortcomings of the mental health system. After interviewing hundreds of homeless people with mental illnesses, the report found that only a third of those seeking treatment actually received it, and that over half were dissatisfied with the services they received. The Coalition, along with numerous community members have since embarked on an effort to reform and rebuild the mental health system.

These demands have been endorsed by Arriba Juntos, Caduceus Outreach Services, California Network of Mental Health Clients, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, Communities United Against Violence, Disability Advocates Minority Organization, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Food Not Bombs, Homeless Prenatal Project, Lindesmith Center, Mental Health Association, Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition, National Lawyer's Guild, POOR Magazine, SF Tenants Union, STREET SPIRIT, Swords to Plowshares, Save our Services, and many more.

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