Laura's Law, also known as assisted outpatient treatment, is coming up for a vote by the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, May 25th, 2021. Laura's Law allows for court-ordered mental health care for those who most need it. Please sign this petition to help get Laura's Law implemented in our county.

Laura’s Law aims to care for a targeted subset of people suffering from severe mental illness and who have experienced repeated visits to jail cells and emergency rooms yet continue to refuse treatment. Some of these community members, a large subset of whom are unhoused, suffer from anosognosia – the inability to perceive their own condition. They don’t know they need help.

Our County offers a full suite of voluntary treatment options, but these programs offer no value to those who refuse help.

San Francisco implemented Laura’s Law in 2014, and has seen great success. A March 2019 three-year evaluation by the San Francisco Health Network found that, among other positive indicators, 91% of patients experienced reduced psychiatric hospitalization and 88% spent less time incarcerated. Overall public dollars spent per Laura’s Law patient decreased by 83% compared with pre-treatment figures.

If you’d like to learn more about Laura’s Law, assisted outpatient treatment, and its benefits, please check out this one-pager published by the Treatment Advocacy Center.