Following a mass shooting in the U.S., like last week’s attack on a nightclub in Orlando, there are often calls to improve mental health services. Two of the valley’s most populous counties are taking very different approaches on one key California law that advocates say could help more people receive treatment they otherwise wouldn’t seek.
Kern and Fresno Counties are at odds over something known as Laura’s Law.
Laura’s Law is named after Laura Wilcox who was killed by a mentally ill man in 2001.
It allows family members of people with documented mental health issues to ask the courts to mandate that a person receive mental health treatment.
However, since it was never funded by the state, only a few counties have pursued it.
One of those that did is Kern, where Brad Cloud is the Deputy Director of the Mental Health Department.
Cloud says 45 people have been referred under Laura’s Law since Kern County met the law’s service level requirements last October.
[For more of this story, written by Jeffrey Hess, go to http://kvpr.org/post/two-valle...tal-health-treatment]
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