Darrell Steinberg and the Campaign for Mental Health: Steve Fields and More on Prop. 63

The article in today's San Francisco Chronicle about Prop. 63 is a reminder to me to thank Steve Fields for his guest blog of a week or two ago. Steve is a highly intelligent person, a Harvard graduate, who has dedicated his professional life to helping people with severe mental illness. He's been with Progress Foundation, a provider of frontline services, in San Francisco decades. Thank you, Steve, for your commitment to mental health, and for your very kind guest blog.

Here's my favorite quote from today's article:

"'It's a holistic issue,' he said. 'Somebody's quality of life, their relationships with other people, their opportunities to work are all integral to whether they recover from mental illness to the point where they become functional, contributing people in society.'"

Prop. 63 will fund these integrated services that are essential to recovery. These are the services that were recognized by President Bush's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, and that are now recognized as "best practices." The services funded by Prop. 63 will give people with severe mental illness the tools they need to succeed.

The AB 34 programs, which were recognized by President Bush's commission and on which Prop. 63 is based, have a proven track record of successfully providing integrated services that dramatically reduce jail time and hospital time for people with severe mental illnesses, and the services provided by these AB 34 programs give them the services they need to lead productive lives.

These integrated services include "whatever it takes" to put each person on the road to recovery--transportation to appointments, job training, counseling, 24-hour access to person who can provide help or advice.

Not only is providing integrated services the humane thing to do, it is also cost effective. The idea of providing integrated services, rather than just medication, is a simple one, really, but it works.

I recognize that most people with severe mental illnesses are already leading very productive lives. Many are leaders in the mental health field in California, and I know many of them very well. Prop. 63 will help those who need and want the help, and it will give them the help they need finding the road to recovery and success.