Carla Jacobs, Co-Chair of the task force, began the news conference, citing that between 20,000 and 30,000 people with severe and persistent mental illness are in California's jails and prisons and 49,500 more people with mental illness are living on the streets. Internationally renowned and respected expert on Schizophrenia and author of "Surviving Schizophrenia/A Family Member's Manual," E. Fuller Torrey, M.D., traveled from Washington, D.C. to present at the news conference. Dr. Torrey stated: "Scientifically, biologically and medically, it is necessary to change the L.P.S. Act."* The outdated law was written when almost nothing was known about mental illness and before mental illness was recognized as a physical disorder of the brain. Dr. Torrey continued: "Some of the evidence of this I have shown here.
The ventricles of the brain of people with schizophrenic and manic- depressive illnesses are larger than people without these illnesses. There are over 100 studies that have shown this. These (pictures shown) are identical twins in one of the studies. Secondly, there is reduced volume of gray matter... Third, there are more neurological abnormalities in people with these illnesses. Fourth, there are more neuropsychological abnormalities in people with these illnesses. Fifth there is decreased functioning of the prefrontal area of the brain. Sixth, that leads directly to probably the most important fact and that is that about 50% of people with schizophrenia and manic-depressive illness because of their brain dysfunction do not understand that they are sick or that they need treatment. This then makes it very, very difficult to provide treatment for people who don't think that they need it.
The consequences of this are as Carla has said, huge numbers of people with mental illness in the jails and prisons. This can, this will be changed by modifying the L.P.S. Act so it is possible to treat people who do not understand that they are sick. Steve Seager, M.D. author of the book "Street Crazy," added the current law contributes daily to tragedies involving people with severe and persistent mental illnesses.
"The term 'homeless mentally ill' is misleading and implies the problem is a lack of homes when the real problem is lack of treatment for mental illness that leads to homelessness. We are tolerating the greatest world disgrace of the twentieth century. We are choosing to ignore our own American Holocaust. Three-hundred thousand people in the United States are starving or more accurately dying on our streets."Dr. Seager further stated that people with mental illness are murdered at a rate ten times greater than the general population, over half the women living in homeless shelters have been raped and people with mental illness loose from 40 to 45 I.Q. points from being untreated. Barry Parrou, Ph.D., sargent for L.A. County Sheriff's Department who helped initiate the first Mental Evaluation Team of a police officer and a mental health tech, cited a 1996 Pacific Research Institute study that estimated the annual cost of housing mentally ill people in state prisons to be $1.2 billion to $1.8 billion, the cost at the local level is similarly high. The task force reported, in 1997-98, Los Angeles County's cost of involuntary treatment was $86 million, not including law enforcement and court costs. About 10 percent of the patients recycled through the system and used 25 percent of the county's involuntary hospitalization budget, the report said.
The deeper personal tragedies were briefly addressed by Frank Baron, a person with schizophrenia in recovery. Frank spoke of his own experience as a college graduate, former Naval officer and civil engineer. Suddenly, paranoid delusions had become severely debilitating to the point of recycling hospitalizations. Until Frank found help in the form of the new atypical anti-psychotic medication, Clozaril, he was unable to concentrate, heard command voices and was troubled by devastating paranoid delusions. Frank related that as he travels around Los Angeles by bus, he often sees people with severe and persistent mental illness living on the streets suffering an "excruciating and terrifying existence" and thinks "there by the grace of God go I." Frank closed by saying: "It is cruel and inhumane to abandon people with mental illness to the streets based on a misconstrued argument of personal freedom. I urge you to support revision of the L.P.S."
*Editor's note: L.P.S. is an abbreviation for Lanterman, Petris, &
Short, the California state legislators and authors of the legislation
which currently governs involuntary treatment. Copies of "L.P.S. Reform/A
New Vision for Mental Health Treatment Laws" are available by sending $10.00
made payable to Long Beach AMI (includes postage and handling) to:
L.P.S. Reform
203 Argonne Ave., B-104
Long Beach, Ca. 90803