As you’re all aware, for the last several years I’ve been intimately involved in our MH “system”. It’s horrid and dysfunctional. In fact the WHO refers to the good old USof A, as being the worst place on the planet to be seriously mentally ill. Although it’s hard to, I believe them.
For three years now I’ve been helping to organize a very grassroots family organization – Families Advocating for the Seriously Mentally Ill (FASMI). We have lobbied, advocated, found allies, spoken up and educated and organized ourselves. Now we’re just plain fed-up and are taking our issues public as best we can.
On February 13th, Sunday, at 1:00 we will be rallying on the steps of the Board of Supervisors and some of us will stay and sleep there till their meeting Tuesday afternoon. Pamela Price and Loni Hancock will be speaking (briefly) among others – most importantly, families telling their stories (again briefly).
We’ll have art and music. Please join us and spread the word to whomever you think would be interested. I’m attaching our press release and flier.
HOSPITALS AND HOMES NOT JAILS AND STREETS
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 28,2022
Event: Rally for HOSPITALS AND HOMES, NOT JAILS AND STREETS
for our Community Members with Serious Mental Illness
Alameda County Behavioral Health Department ignores State funds earmarked for
improving and expanding mental health infrastructure, while Supervisors vote to pour
money into Santa Rita Jail, which will conOnue to be the default warehouse of people
with mental illness.
Organized by Families Advoca.ng for the Seriously Mentally Ill (FASMI)
On Sunday, February 13, the day before Valen’ne’s Day, beginning at 1:00 p.m., a broad-based
group of family ac’vists will gather on the plaza in front of the Board of Supervisors office
building at 1221 Oak Street in downtown Oakland to demand that Alameda County redirect
resources away from incarcera’on and into desperately needed community-based facilities
and services for those with Serious Mental Illness. There will be music and speakers, including
Alameda County District AQorney candidate Pamela Price, and former State Senator Loni
Hancock, throughout the aUernoon.
Participants will remain in the plaza un’l Tuesday, when the Supervisors meet, to demand a
public mee’ng to discuss recent funding decisions taken by the BOS and Alameda County
Behavior Health.
At a ‘me when the State of California is flush with tax revenue, and when the governor has
signaled that he intends to release funds to tackle the related problems of homelessness and
untreated mental illness, it is essen’al that elected officials listen to those who live with the
consequences of untreated mental illness. Families demand that all available resources are
sought and that they are allocated in a way that will make a difference in the lives of their
loved ones.
The State Legislature has already enacted the Behavioral Health ConOnuum Infrastructure
Program (BHCIP), which makes $2.2 billion in grants available to coun’es who apply for them
to “construct, acquire, and expand proper’es” that serve individuals with Mental Illness. These
funds can be used for much needed acute and/or sub-acute facili’es and suppor’ve housing.
Yet, to date, Alameda County Behavioral Health has declined to apply during the first rounds of
grants. These funds are once in a genera’on opportuni’es to create a decent con’nuum of
mental health care in the community. There are also other grants that can be used to subsidize
staffing and other needs.
At the same ‘me that the County is ignoring the opportunity to build more and beQer
community-based treatment centers, the Board of Supervisors has voted to allocate $300
Million to Sheriff Ahern for mental health facili’es at Santa Rita Jail, which has been sued for
its inhumane treatment of mentally ill prisoners. Ac’vists agree that jail condi’ons for those
with mental illness are deplorable, but they reject the idea that jail remain the default for
dealing with untreated mental illness. Public Defender Brian Bloom, who has been a fellow
advocate along with many others calling for “Care First, Jail Last” policies, said of the recent
seQlement, “Of course I want mentally ill individuals to be treated well in jail. But there’s only
so much money (and so many clinicians!) to go around: every penny that is spent in jail is a
penny not spent on keeping someone out of jail. “ Individuals frequently wind up in jail for
minor infrac’ons or innocuous behaviors simply because there is no other place to take them:
our hospitals and outpa’ent agencies are over-burdened. Jails are the beds that never say no.
Elected officials must step up and for’fy our Mental Health System so that it delivers for the
most vulnerable and overlooked members of our society: those with serious mental illness.
The demonstra’on is sponsored by Families Advoca.ng for the Seriously Mentally Ill (FASMI), a
coali’on of family members, caregivers and supporters of those with severe neurobiological
disorders (aka SMI) such as schizophrenia, schizoaffec’ve disorder and bipolar disorder. FASMI
advocates for changes to public health funding, laws, policies and prac’ces that fail to
adequately help those with these illnesses. Families are the frontline of care and sustenance
for the mentally ill, but without the support of our ins’tu’ons and laws we are helpless to
protect our loved ones, and our family members become society’s problems.
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We fight against spy drones, facial recognition, tracking equipment, police body camera secrecy, anti-transparency laws and requirements for “backdoors” to cellphones; we oppose “pre-crime” and “thought-crime,” — to list just a few invasions of our privacy by all levels of Government, and attempts to hide what government officials, employees and agencies are doing.
