May 14, 2008

 

Gov. Jim Gibbons
State Capital
101 North Carson Street
Carson City, NV 89701

Dear Gov. Gibbons,

On March 11, 2008, I directed a letter to you regarding a law in the state of New York, called “Kendra’s Law”.

I advised you that I wanted to make this “Arabella’s Law”, in the state of Nevada and asked for your help and advice.

As of this date I have not even received a reply to this letter.

On March 24, 2008, I emailed a copy of your letter to all senators and assemblymen in Nevada State Government, also to Harold Cook, Administrator Department of Nevada Mental Health, who stated in a return letter to me:

“Assembly bill 193 covers this and he can assure me that we are doing everything we can do to provide necessary services to keep our communities safe”.

The above statement is certainly reassuring, however, it appears that Nevada Law is not even capable of managing its Doctors.

The following are statistics from New York regarding Kendra’s Law after a five year study:

3,908 individuals received treatment orders under Kendra’s Law. An average
of 620 individuals per month, or 7747 individuals per year.

  • 74% fewer experienced homelessness
  • 77% fewer experienced psychiatric hospitalization
  • 83% fewer experienced arrest and
  • 87% fewer experienced incarceration
  • 55% fewer recipients engaged in suicide attempts or physical harm to self
  • 49% fewer abused alcohol
  • 48% fewer abused drugs
  • 47% fewer physically harmed others
  • 46% fewer threatened physical harm to others

    Overall the average decrease in harmful behavior was 44%.

    Individuals exhibiting good adherence to medication increased by 103% (from only 34% to 69%).

    Researchers with the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University conducted face to face interviews with 76 AOT (assisted outpatient treatment) recipients to assess their opinions about the program.

    75% reported that AOT helped them gain control over their lives. 81% said that AOT helped them to get and stay well, and 90% said AOT made them more likely to keep appointments and take medication. Additionally 87% said they were confident in their case manager’s ability to help them – and 88% said that they and their case manager agreed on what is important for them to work on. AOT had a positive effect on the therapeutic alliance.

    A team of mental health researchers from Duke University has been awarded a contract to evaluate the effectiveness of New York state’s AOL initiative. The team is led by Dr. Marvin Swartz. The evaluation will be completed by March of 2009.

    Our prisons are filled to overflowing. Nevada Corrections Department Director, Howard Skolnik, has stated that it’s “OK” that Parole and Probation has not followed state law and released prisoners “because we may need them to fight fires”.

    At $37,000.00 per year for each prisoner, which of course does not include any medical care. I believe “Arabella’s Law” would pay for itself in one year.

    I believe further, that with all of our returning soldiers and the mental problems they have sustained that implementation of this law could assist the military.

     

    Sincerely,

    Marjorie Love Bull