May 2021, Newsletter
County Supervisors Opt-In to Assisted Outpatient Treatment (Laura's Law)
On May 25, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 to opt-in to Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT), also known as Laura’s Law, a program that would allow the County to provide court-ordered outpatient mental health treatment to residents with severe mental illness.
County Supervisor Otto Lee and I made the recommendation to opt-in following a special Health and Hospital Committee session on March 24th, 2021, dedicated exclusively to discussing AOT (Laura's Law).
The program is targeted specifically to individuals whose illnesses are so severe that they don’t recognize the need for treatment, have a history of refusing or abandoning treatment services, and are unlikely to survive safely in the community without supervision.