BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1847|
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CONSENT
Bill No: AB 1847
Author: Chesbro (D)
Amended: 6/4/14 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE : 6-0, 6/17/14
AYES: Jackson, Corbett, Lara, Leno, Monning, Vidak
NO VOTE RECORDED: Anderson
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 76-0, 5/19/14 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Mental health disorders: language
SOURCE : Disability Rights California
DIGEST : This bill updates numerous California Codes by
removing references to insane or mentally disordered or
defective persons and replacing those references with mental
health disorder, intellectual disability, or developmental
disability.
ANALYSIS : Existing law refers to mentally disordered,
mentally defective persons, and insane persons throughout 14
different California codes.
This bill removes those references and replaces them with
references to persons with a mental health disorder or persons
who lack legal capacity to make decisions, and makes technical
revisions to those code sections.
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Existing law authorizes the state to establish custody and
restraint of:
1. Mentally ill persons, insane persons, chronic inebriates, and
other persons of unsound mind;
2. Paupers for the purposes of their maintenance; and
3. Minors for the purposes of their education, reformation, and
maintenance.
This bill repeals that provision.
Existing law requires, on or before June 30, 1970, the medical
director of each state hospital for the mentally disordered to
compile a roster of those mentally disordered or chronic
alcoholic patients within the institution who are gravely
disabled. That roster must indicate the county from which each
such patient was admitted to the hospital or, if the hospital
records indicate that the county of residence of the patient is
a different county, the county of residence.
Existing law requires the officer providing conservatorship
investigation for each county to be given a copy of the names
and pertinent records of the patients from that county and to
investigate the need for conservatorship for those patients, and
each state hospital and Department of State Hospitals is
required to make their records concerning those patients
available to the officer. After his/her investigation and on or
before July 1, 1972, the county officer providing
conservatorship investigation is required to file a petition of
conservatorship for those patients that he/she determines may
need conservatorship.
Existing law provides that court commitments under the
provisions of law in effect prior to July 1, 1969, of those
patients for whom a petition of conservatorship is not filed
shall terminate and the patient shall be released unless he/she
agrees to accept treatment on a voluntary basis.
This bill repeals those provisions.
Background
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Over the past several years, the Legislature has updated
California's Codes by removing offensive or stigmatizing
language referring to mental health disorders. AB 1640 (La
Malfa, Chapter 31, Statutes of 2007) changed references to
"idiot," "imbecility," and "lunatics" in various code sections
to refer instead to persons who are mentally incapacitated. AB
2370 (Mansoor, Chapter 448, Statutes of 2012) and SB 1381
(Pavley, Chapter 457, Statutes of 2012) removed all references
to "mental retardation" or "mentally retarded person" and
replaced them with "intellectual disability" or "a person with
an intellectual disability."
This bill similarly removes references to "insane," "mentally
disordered," and "mentally defective" persons and replace those
terms with "mental health disorder," "intellectual disability,"
"developmental disability," or "persons who lack legal capacity
to make decisions," and make additional minor technical
revisions to those code sections. This bill also repeals the
ability of the state to establish custody and restraint of
mentally ill persons, paupers, and minors and removes outdated
requirements for a state hospital to compile a roster of gravely
disabled mentally ill patients and provide those patients' names
and records to conservatorship investigation officers.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local:
No
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/17/14)
Disability Rights California (source)
California Council of Community Mental Health Agencies
California Psychological Association
National Alliance on Mental Illness
National Association of Social Workers, California Chapter
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The author writes:
Some terminology still used today in California Law
reflects false beliefs about people with mental health
life experiences. These include: crazy, lunatic, insane,
feeble-minded, mentally defective, and abnormal.
This kind of terminology increases stigma by making
assumptions about the characteristics of people with
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psychiatric disabilities. Some devalue them, distinguish
them as outsiders, perceive them as weak, or speak in
terms that focus on the person's disability, instead of
the person. It can also promote discrimination by
promoting action based on these preconceived notions.
Statutes often reflect the times in which they were
created. As such, they do not always keep up with
anti-discrimination laws, new models of community support
services, and the terms that are used to describe people
with disabilities. It is important that the California
Code utilizes language that is respectful of persons with
disabilities.
AB 1847 would replace offensive and outdated terms
concerning people with mental health disabilities in
California statutes. California statutes should remove
and replace stigmatizing terms with contemporary terms
that promote respect and dignity of Californians with
mental health disabilities.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 76-0, 5/19/14
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian
Calderon, Campos, Chau, Ch�vez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley,
Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eggman, Fong, Fox,
Frazier, Beth Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon,
Gorell, Gray, Grove, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Roger Hern�ndez,
Holden, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal,
Maienschein, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Olsen, Pan,
Patterson, Perea, John A. P�rez, V. Manuel P�rez, Quirk,
Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Skinner,
Stone, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk,
Williams, Yamada, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Mansoor, Nazarian, Nestande, Vacancy
JA:d 6/19/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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