California’s mental health ballot measure is the best chance in decades to change the system

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California voters are deciding the fate of Proposition 1, a mental health funding reform and bond measure on the March primary ballot. Below, the guardian of a woman who died after receiving inadequate treatment says Prop. 1 can help change a failing system. The opposing view: A mental health advocate says the measure will force major cuts and give public dollars to private industry.

Guest Commentary written by

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Alison Monroe

Alison Monroe is a retired editor in Oakland and co-founder of Families Advocating for the Seriously Mentally Ill, or FASMI.

For nine years, I begged Alameda County agencies to give my intermittently homeless and schizophrenic ward the care she needed to stay alive and well. Last September, some 12 years after I became her legal guardian, she fatally overdosed on meth and fentanyl.

The mental health system operating in California counties like mine could not save my daughter, and Proposition 1 , the mental health funding reform and bond measure on the March ballot, is our best chance in many years to change it .

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