Mental Health Crisis Care Should Be Caring Not Carceral. 

Over two decades ago, I survived a broken mental health crisis system. I endured multiple psychiatric hospitalizations that left me feeling like a criminal instead of someone in desperate need of help. Years later, as a psychiatrist, I made a deeply personal promise: I will not do to others what I would not want done to myself.

This promise inspired the creation of the SHIELD Act (Safeguarding Health Interventions to Eliminate Lethal Disparities), a proposal to transform how mental health crises are handled.

The Problem:

• 20% of mental health crisis calls involve police, often escalating situations instead of de-escalating them.
• Nearly 50% of the people killed by the police have some form of disability. People with mental illness are frequently presumed to be violent, despite being more likely to be the victims of violence.
• Crisis responses rely on coercive measures, like physical restraint and forced medication, which traumatize rather than heal.
• Standard guidelines recommend calling 911, 988, or mobile crisis teams, but they fail to address the risks of police involvement or trauma within crisis management.
• These sources of harm disproportionately affect racially minoritized and marginalized individuals.

The SHIELD Act Offers Solutions:

• Mandated antiracist, trauma-informed training for healthcare providers.
• Non-police response teams led by professionals with lived and clinical expertise.
• Comprehensive informed consent, ensuring individuals and families understand all options, especially alternatives to police involvement and coercive practices.

Why This Matters:

• Lives can be saved by shifting from punitive to compassionate care.
• Mental health crises should be met with dignity and respect—not harm or criminalization.

How You Can Help:

• Sign the petition to support the SHIELD Act.
• Contact California state lawmakers and urge them to sponsor this life-saving legislation.
• Share this message to amplify the call for a better mental health crisis response.
• Donate to support legislative advocacy.

Every candle at a vigil represents a life lost—and a commitment to reform. Together, we can ensure mental health care is truly caring, not carceral.