With $4M on table, county reconsiders Laura’s Law

OROVILLE >> In 2001, a 19-year-old woman named Laura Wilcox was shot and killed in Nevada County by a man who social workers had allegedly been trying to have institutionalized.

The Assisted Outpatient Treatment Program, commonly known as Laura’s Law, was approved by the state with the caveat that individual counties could choose to take on the law or choose not to.

Butte County has not yet implemented the law. However, during the Jan. 14 Board of Supervisors meeting, the Butte County Department of Behavioral Health announced a potential grant opportunity to help fund the program. If accepted, the county would receive around $1 million a year for four years.

First conversation

In 2016, various department heads from the county met to discuss implementing the program but ultimately decided not to. A recommendation was made to the Board of Supervisors by staff members to not take on the program.

Four years later, the health department once again is bringing the matter to the board, this time in support of it should grant funding come through.

According to the agenda report given to the board on Jan. 14, the department alluded to new data supporting Laura’s Law as the reason for the change of mind.

“Many counties did not have outcome data on all indicators, but anecdotally there was a decrease in psychiatric hospitalization, criminal justice involvement and crisis services for those enrolled in (the Assisted Outpatient Treatment Program),” the report said.

Enforcement

Attorney Philip Heithecker, executive director for the local public defenders, said the utilization of the program is more in the ballpark of guardianship by the county rather than a probationary concept.

“An individual is identified, a petition for commitment under Laura’s Law is filed with the court, the patient is served the petition and the health care provider is served with the petition and then there is a court proceeding,” Heithecker said.

Public defenders are generally not part of the process unless the patient in question is uncooperative.

“I think that’s going to be a very rare case,” Heithecker said.

One of the department heads sitting in during the talks was Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey.

Ramsey’s office has little to no part in the law as the enforcement is a civil matter and pushed by a judge and the county.

“The fact is that you have a number of people who commit crimes because they are mentally unbalanced, they have a disorder,” Ramsey said. “Certainly, anything that helps those people is a good thing, whether it’s by using Laura’s Law or something else.”

Possible implementation

Filing for the grant funding must be completed by Jan. 24 in order to be considered.

If the money is secured, a pilot program comprised of trained teams within the community will be put in place. The goal is to have “high staff-to-client ratios” with 10 clients or less being assigned to one team member, the agenda report said.

Things become more complex if the grant funding falls through as funding cannot be taken from other county sources to appease the program, per a clause in the law.

Money from the Mental Health Services Act could theoretically be allocated to the establishment of the program but only with what the report called “a robust community input process.”

Eligibility

If all goes according to plan and the program is given the green light, there are parameters that a client must meet to qualify for services through Laura’s Law.

The client must be at least 18 and suffering from diagnosed mental illness. It must also be professionally determined that the client can’t safely be within the community without treatment.

Other rules include a history of at least two instances in which the client has been hospitalized or received treatment due to their illness over the last 36 months, a severely deteriorating mental condition and a history of one or more cases the client attempted to hurt themselves or someone else over a 48-hour period.

Ultimately, a judge will have to make the determination whether a person fits the requirements based on evidence presented during the court proceeding.

The county will know for sure if it is eligible for funding after Jan. 24.