Darrell Steinberg and the Campaign for Mental Health

Our Constituency

Last night, our campaign took me to the Clift Hotel in San Francisco for an event organized by the Iris Foundation, founded by Mary Chung Hayashi, which is an organization devoted to suicide prevention.

The honored guest at last night's event was Mariel Hemingway, whose family has been affected by mental illness for generations. Ms. Hemingway is one of our fellow travelers, and I would be honored to have her at all of our campaign events. She's an excellent spokesperson for the cause.

As we near the election, I continue to be inspired by the camaraderie of the people dedicated to the cause of improving mental health services, research, and treatment. We have clearly hit on a longstanding need - to organize the constituency of supporters of mental health causes. Each day, we reach more people and our support base expands.

Out on the campaign trail, every day I find myself among people who are devoting all of their spare time to doing everything they can do to see that Prop. 63 gets the votes it needs to pass. I am very touched by the dedication of so many people.

We have little more than two weeks to go until the election. Please do everything you can to get the word out. Please forward our weekly email newsletter to everyone that you can, and email your friends about Prop. 63.

If you haven't already, please become a Prop 63 Rapid Responder to make sure we have the resources to counter last minute TV advertising by our opposition.

Click here to become a Rapid Responder >>

Click here to forward our website to your friends >>

Visit to Fresno and Stockton

Last week, I visited CSU Fresno and the grounds of the former state mental hospital in Stockton, and I now have the photos.


At CSU Fresno, students and professors joined with local mental health advocates and providers to rally in support of Prop. 63. Richard Van Horn, President of the National Mental Health Association of Greater Los Angeles, was master of ceremonies. Consumer and family member advocates Baltimore Gonzalez of United Consumer Advocacy Network and David Weikel of the National Association of Social Workers, California Chapter (NASW-CA), rallied the already enthusiastic crowd. Susan B. Anderson, Chairperson of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors joined me in supporting Prop 63.


Following the rally, advocates celebrated their support for Prop. 63 at a fundraiser luncheon at the Alumni House that raised over $7,000.00, thanks to local providers such as members of SEIU 535, Turning Point of Central California, and Tulare Youth Service Bureau.

Prop 63 Rapid Responders

Thanks to your hard work and support, Prop 63 is in a strong position to win. With the campaign plan we have in place, we are confident we can win on November 2.

We are ahead in the polls, we're reaching out with significant advertising and direct mail, and we're running an active statewide campaign, speaking to the press, hosting events, and raising much-needed money. But the last three weeks of the campaign could get very heated, very fast.

Our opposition may purchase significant TV advertising time in the final days or weeks of the campaign, giving us very little time to respond with additional advertising or a response to their messages. To counter this threat, we have launched Prop 63 Rapid Responders, an initiative that asks you to pledge to donate online within 24 hours of a significant, threatening TV ad buy by opponents of Prop 63. It takes less than a minute to sign up, but this rapid response could make the difference between the success or failure of Prop 63.

Our goal is to sign up 3,000 Rapid Responders by October 15 and to have 5,000 pledged by October 22. With these kinds of numbers, we can immediately counter the distortions put out by our opponents, by producing new spots and/or adding considerably to our air time.

We're in the home stretch, and I thank you for joining me for the most important three weeks of our two-year effort. Rapid Responders may help put us over the top.

Shasta County

Seventy percent of the money from Prop. 63 will be used to fund the adults' and children's systems of care in California. On Wednesday, I spent the day in Shasta County, with my capable, knowledgeable, dedicated, and, turns out, very energetic guide, Cindi Bither-Bradley of Shasta County Mental Health Services. Cindi took me to eight different places and explained the county's systems of care we drove. Thanks to Cindi for a most educational day.

Our first stop was the NAMI banquet at the Red Lion Inn. It was attended by almost 300 people who had all been touched by severe mental illness in some way. I spoke about Prop. 63 and gave a news and a radio interview. We visited the rescue mission, which is an emergency shelter for people who are homeless, and most of which are severely mentally ill. We visted two supportive housing complexes for adults with severe mental illness, and we visited a day rehabilitation facility, also for adults with severe mental illness. On the children's side, we visited the "LINCS" program, which is a local interagency organization. This is an integrated services program serves children with mental health needs in the foster care system, and the LINCS program does it all in one building. They have brought the providers together so that children and their foster parents don't have to navigate a fragmented system. We ended the day at a League of Women Voters event, where I again spoke about Prop. 63.

The Campaign Trail/Mental Illness Awareness Week

This week, I've gone to Fresno and Stockton to give talks about Prop. 63. Today it's Shasta County, and later in the week it's Berkeley and Napa. One of our main areas of focus right now is the web campaign. At each event, we make a point of getting people on our email list so they can forward information about Prop. 63 to their friends throughout the state. We're trying to blanket the state with email contacts from our volunteers.

This week is Mental Illness Awareness Week, and I thought I would share some good news with you that I received from NAMI this week:

The Good News about Mental Illness

• A new perception of mental illness is emerging -- one that focuses on early intervention, effective treatment, rehabilitation, and recovery. No area of health care is changing more than mental health. Advances are prompted by better science and more research, the information revolution, the important role consumers play in advocating for themselves, and family members who speak out for their loved ones.



• Treatment works -- if a person with mental illness can get it. Science has greatly expanded our understanding and treatment of severe mental illnesses. Once forgotten in the back wards of mental institutions, individuals with these disorders have a real chance at reclaiming full and productive lives, but only if they have access to treatments, services, and programs so vital to recovery.

Thanks to NAMI for sponsoring Mental Illness Awareness Week. Prop. 63 is about providing the access to treatment, services, and programs. It's about finally fulfilling the promise to fund a system of community mental health services made by the state almost 40 years ago when it emptied the state mental hospitals. I've often said that ballot initiative isn't the perfect way to do this, but it's the only way. Forty years is long enough to wait, and this is our chance to make it happen.

Please continue emailing friends about YESon63.org. We're counting on our volunteers to help us get the 5,000,000 votes we need on November 2.

Guest Blog: Darrell Honored as Assembly Member of the Year

Steve Fields is Executive Director of the Progress Foundation.

The California mental health community has been blessed with a few outstanding legislative leaders over the past thirty-five years who have advanced the cause of those who struggle every day with severe mental illness. From the pioneering work of Frank Lanterman in the late 1960's and early 70's we have had strong, committed leadership guiding the development of community mental health services. In the late 1970's and early 80's Assemblyman Tom Bates led the charge, followed by Assemblyman Bruce Bronzan. Today, we are fortunate to have the strong voice of Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg to bring the issues confronting our public mental health system to the forefront of public discussion.

Darrell Steinberg has led the effort to develop and support Proposition 63, an initiative on this November's ballot that promises to be the most significant reform of our mental health system since the original Lanterman-Petris-Short legislation over thirty years ago. Those of us who work in the mental health system, provide volunteer service directly to consumers or through participation on non-profit boards of directors, and, certainly the family members and consumers themselves could not have a stronger, more credible voice to carry our message of hope and change to the public.

Assemblyman Steinberg has long been considered one of the most effective legislators in Sacramento. In the August edition of the non-partisan California Journal magazine, this view of Darrell Steinberg was confirmed when he swept the eighth biennial "Minnie Awards" which are presented to the state's best and brightest lawmakers. Assemblyman Steinberg received the top prize of "Assembly Member of the Year" and was named the Assembly's best in three of four other categories - Integrity, Problem-Solving and Hard-Working. The citation he received with the award recognition states that "Most observers credited him with being in the thick of nearly every tough problem to come before the Legislature over the past two years...He was cited repeatedly for his problem-solving abilities, quick intelligence and hard work..."

When a state leader tackles the complex issues involved in community mental health treatment in California they had better be prepared for a hard battle. As the 2004 Minnie Awards confirm, Darrell Steinberg brings all the necessary qualities to the fight to make good on our long-standing and unrealized promise to fund a comprehensive and accountable mental health system throughout our state. Like the leaders before him, he has moved decisively and with a clear commitment and vision to address the need for significant change in the California mental health system through landmark legislation and the development of Proposition 63.

Please join me in congratulating him.

Drive for Early Voters

We're less than a month away from the election now, and Californians registered as permanent absentee voters started receiving their ballots next week. It’s essential that we get our own mail message to these voters as soon as possible.

We're making a special push to reach a half-million early voters with our Yes on 63 message BEFORE they send in their ballots. Thanks to a donation of discounted printing, we were able to print 500,000 copies of a promotional mail piece.

But we need to raise money for postage to send these pieces out. Now through Thursday, October 7, we're turning to you for help. We're asking you to make a special donation dedicated to getting these promotional mailers to absentee voters.

For every dollar you donate, we will reach 7 early voters. In other words:

> $50 reaches 350 voters
> $150 reaches over 1,000 voters
> $1,500 reaches over 10,000 voters

Our goal is to raise $70,000 in 7 days - enough to get almost every piece of mail out the door. We'll keep you updated on our progress on the YESon63.org homepage. As the money comes in, we'll start sending the mailers out.

We're so close to a victory in November, and I don't want to take any chances. We need to reach everyone we can possibly reach between now and the election.

Again, thank you for your help.

Thanks To All of Our Fellow Travelers

Now that we're getting so close to the election and getting more press and momentum, I've noticed that more and more people are commenting to me that when they first heard of the idea that is now Prop. 63, they really didn't think this was going to happen.

It's true that in the beginning, it was just a few of us with an idea. And it wasn't easy to find encouraging words. Most people just didn't think it would happen.

Then our volunteers stepped up. In the signature-gathering phase of this effort, our volunteers collected over 100,000 signatures. This is absolutely unprecedented, to my knowledge. Usually there are about 10,000 volunteer signatures, and initiative proponents have to pay signature-gatherers to get the rest of them.

I think the major reason people thought we couldn't make Prop. 63 happen was that we didn't have a benefactor -- a major donor behind the idea. Our volunteers stepped up again. This campaign has been financed at a grassroots level, which, again, is very unusual for a ballot initiative.

Last Tuesday evening, when I was at the event in Cupertino, someone told me that she has received several emails about Prop. 63 from various friends throughout the state. Our volunteers are stepping up again to make our Internet campaign a success and to make sure that we get the votes we need to pass Prop. 63 on November 2.

I just can't begin to express the gratitude I feel for every single person who has joined with us.

Another thing I've noticed is that anytime I go to an event for Prop. 63, I feel like I am among good friends -- even with people I've never met in my life. We are fellow travelers in this cause, and there's an unspoken connection among us. It has been such a pleasure, and such a positive experience, so unexpected, for me to meet all of these people who have deep and genuine commitment to the mental health cause.

In the Capitol, there's not a big mental health lobbying contingent. We've really got to keep our momentum going for mental health even after November 2. When there's a mental health issue before the Legislature anytime in the future, you all can make a difference in the outcome. Please make sure you and your friends who are part of this cause are on our email list so we can keep you all informed about issues in the future.

Cupertino Event

Got home late last evening from the fundraiser in Cupertino. It was, as always, such a pleasure to spend an evening with 70 or 80 people who are supporters of Prop. 63. Several people at the event told me that the cuts to mental health services over the last several decades has resulted in a situation in which Santa Clara County must turn away 70 percent of people who qualify for mental health services, which amounts to tens of thousands of adults and children each year.

The law requires counties to provide mental health services only to the extent that resources from the local revenue fund are available to counties. The people who receive the services are the ones who need them the most. They are the most severely mentally ill, and those who have hit bottom -- they've landed in jail or in a hospital or they are homeless. There is no money to serve the others who haven't yet hit bottom. And prevention programs are only a dream.

Needless to say, there is strong support in Santa Clara County for creating a dedicated funding source of $1 billion a year to fund the adults' and children's systems of care, to establish prevention and early intervention programs, to establish innovative programs, and to fund capital facilities and human resources for mental health. All of this, Prop. 63 will do.

Is Prevention A Moral Obligation?

Yesterday, a member of my staff attended a lecture by Dr. Ira Chasnoff, a pediatrician from Chicago who specializes in prevention issues relating to children. I wish I could have been there for the lecture. Dr. Chasnoff began his medical lecture by asking the philosophical question of whether prevention is a moral obligation. If we know from study after study that prevention and early intervention works, what is our obligation as a society?

Dr. Chasnoff's message is related to drug and alcohol abuse, and the impact of a mother's substance abuse on unborn babies, but the question is the same as it relates to mental health. We know that prevention programs keep adults and children in their homes and in their jobs and schools and out of jails and juvenile detention facilities. We know that we can prevent mental illness from becoming severe and disabling in most cases. We know that prevention reduces the likelihood of suicides and suicide attempts. And we know that many people who want prevention services can't access them because there is inadequate funding to make them available to everyone who wants them. Prop. 63 is our opportunity to change that--to make those services accessible and available to people who want them.

Tonight I am flying to San Jose to speak at a fundraiser for Prop. 63. I feel the pressure as the election nears. These last five weeks count so much in the outcome of this election. I'm doing everything I can to raise the money we need to get our message out, and I know that hundreds of others are working right along with me. Please continue to help us get our message out.