As the mom of someone with schizophrenia, Newsom’s CARE Court is a miracle | Opinion
Real hope
“CA’s CARE Act is cruel, not the solution to homelessness,” (sacbee.com, Feb. 24)
I am the mom of a person with schizophrenia who is alive today because of conservatorship, medication and hospitalization. Despite the best intentions, I believe Disability Rights California has painted itself into an ideological corner.
DRC must back off from the stand it has taken that people with mental illness must be free to risk their lives anywhere at any time under any circumstances. Let us help our family members who do not know they are ill. Ours is not “false hope.” We know from bitter, vivid, personal experience that our loved ones risk their lives on the street, and that medications often save their lives. Our hope comes from experience.
CARE court does not force medication or hospitalization. It lets a judge learn how successful or unsuccessful voluntary measures have been for our family members dying on the streets, and to recommend a person for conservatorship under existing laws.
Alison Monroe
Oakland
In need of help
“CA’s CARE Act is cruel, not the solution to homelessness,” (sacbee.com, Feb. 24)
People in psychosis who lack awareness are robbed of their ability to make self-directed healthcare decisions — or any reality-based decisions about their lives.
The core issue in our state is that we continue to conflate a civil rights argument with a medical policy issue. These deteriorating but treatable people require life-sustaining intervention at disease onset to stop brain damage, restore decision-making capacity and enter into recovery.
Any organization with a charter to speak for those with disabilities that uses our tax dollars must understand the current data on those disabilities. Disability Rights California hasn’t done their homework and should be held accountable for stonewalling lifesaving policies like the CARE Act to help our sickest citizens.
Linda L. Mimms
Vice Chair of the Board, Schizophrenia & Psychosis Action Alliance
Public health
“CA’s CARE Act is cruel, not the solution to homelessness,” (sacbee.com, Feb. 24)
Eric Harris misrepresents the CARE Courts legislation in his op-ed piece. It does not claim to solve the crisis of homelessness, although it will help many homeless people. CARE Court addresses the lack of care for severely mentally ill persons who are unable to make rational decisions about their own care. For individuals who cycle between emergency rooms, jails, 72-hour crisis holds and the streets, CARE Court is a first step toward a humane, comprehensive approach to healing.
Importantly, CARE Court legislation enables families to be involved in care decisions. It takes the matter out of criminal courts and into the arena of public health — where it belongs.
Stephanie Allan
Berkeley
Rich in irony
“Dumping ‘Dilbert’ comic different from revising dead writers,” (sacbee.com, Feb. 28)
I totally support the discontinuance by The Sacramento Bee and many other media outlets of Scott Adams’ comic strip “Dilbert.” This opinion piece by Melinda Henneberger explaining the comic’s discontinuance while decrying revisionism of older literary works was also spot on.
It’s hard, however, not to note the irony of Adams being defended and supported by Elon Musk. Adams’ strip basically portrayed a dystopian workplace with an incel for a protagonist. Musk certainly comes across as the most high-profile dystopian boss of recent memory, other attributes notwithstanding.
Ron Fox
Sacramento
Arts events
“The Sacramento Beat: WinterWonderGrass, Kith & Kin festivals highlight March concert calendar,” (sacbee.com, Feb. 27)
Missing from this list is the Sacramento Choral Society & Orchestra concert on March 4th. The SCSO will be at the SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center performing works by Sir Charles Stanford and Felix Mendelssohn.
This is the 27th season for our local 100+ voice choir. While the choir might not get the number of concertgoers that WinterWonderGrass gets, they (and other local classical music groups) should not get short changed by our local newspaper.
Bob Aldrich
Sacramento
Reduce emissions
“Pipeline debate at center of California carbon capture plans,” (sacbee.com, Feb. 25)
California’s carbon capture conundrum calls to mind a larger pattern of inconsistency in state and federal energy policy. Elected officials continuously ask for new energy development while ignoring or adding roadblocks that can significantly lengthen the permitting process for all kinds of infrastructure projects.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies can help us meet global goals to reduce emissions. America has seen evidence of this with its 13 commercial-scale operating CCS facilities, cumulatively capable of capturing approximately 20 million metric tons of CO2 every year.
For CCS to reach its full potential across America, policymakers need to prioritize innovation in energy, streamline permitting processes and allow the energy industry to bring this groundbreaking technology to scale.
Catherine Reheis-Boyd
President and CEO, Western States Petroleum Association