Our daughter, India Latimore has been hospitalized 18 times from December 20, 2020- April 25, 2022. Her diagnosis is Bipolar I with Severe Psychosis and Schizo Effective Disorder. Over the past five years, we have aggressively tried to receive extended residential mental health treatment for her; however, we were denied every single time. Typically, what would occur is she would receive a 1013 in Georgia and/or a Bakers Act in Florida. Most people around the country know it as a 48-hour hold to an acute mental health treatment facility. In this facility she would receive medication to make her “stable.” After the mandated 48-hour hold, she would be released back to her family regardless of if she is fully stable or not. (In some instances, a physician can keep a person an extra week without having to petition the court.) What we have noticed is their definition of stable is, if she is not suicidal or homicidal then she is stable. Every time India was sent home, she would still be in a state of mania. She would have delusions, she would still hear voices, and often times she would give herself a new identity and fight with us because she did not believe we were her parents. But the acute care facility says she’s stable, go figure. 
Her last hospitalization was April 24, 2022 in Marathon, FL. The hospital was eager for someone to come get her before she was released to the streets. I, Steve Latimore, flew to Miami, took a two-and-a-half-hour shuttle ride to Marathon, and went straight to the hospital to pick her up. When I arrived, I could clearly see she was very unstable. She was still in a delusional state and not ready for the fifteen-and-a-half-hour drive back to Georgia. But she is my daughter and I love her and was willing to do whatever to get her back to Georgia.  I was advised and her mom, Jacqui Robinson, was advised that if she is in the car with me and takes off running to call the police. Well, I didn’t even make it out of the facility before she ran off. I called the police, and the facility called the police. I showed the officer that I have court ordered guardianship of her, but it didn’t matter. The officer spoke with her and returned to me and said, I can not force her to be readmitted or come with me because she does not pose a threat to herself or others. I tried several times to get her in the car and she actually did, but eventually jumped out at a traffic light. She said I wasn’t her father. I went back to look for her and could not find her.  
Moving forward to June 4, 2022. She jumped into a running car. The owner of the vehicle ran after the car and grabbed the door handle to stop her from taking the car. As he fell to the ground, he was run over. He received several injuries and sadly he did not survive. We believe that this tragedy and many other tragedies involving people with mental illness could be prevented with a revision to the current 48 hours hold law. With all of this being said, we are proposing India’s Law. This new law would require physicians to take the patients previous hospital stays into consideration prior to release. If the patient has several hospitalizations in a certain time frame, for example 18 in two years like India, they would be obligated to provided longer term care prior to releasing the patient without petitioning the court. In addition, we would like to see more funding towards residential treatment facilities to accommodate individuals with mental illness. Our goal is to save lives and India’s Law will help prevent other families from experiencing any type of tragic loss due to mental illness.  Thanks For Your Support.