Honor. For the record, my name is nick wilcox, i live in penn valley in california here with my wife amanda who because of the crowded conditions is in the overflow room, shes also put in a speaker card and would like to reserve the right to speak at the end if she deems that necessary. I would like to thank supervisor farrell and mayor lee for your steadfast support of lauras law. As supervisor farrell said, amanda and i are the parents of laura wilcox, laura when she was 19 in 2001 died in a rampage shooting while she was trying to help people with severe Mental Illness. She was working at the Behavioral Mental Health clinic, i man named scott thorpe came in and shot her pointblank 4 times and she died instantly. Since that time we have come to realize, actually we came to realize rather early on in the process, that there are significant gaps in the Mental Health services system. We became involved with assembly mental Helen Thompson in ab 1421 which was eventually signed by the gov
Protect our duties from fire and other emergencies but our duties also require us to respond to the medical needs of others, both homeless and other individuals. For some of these individuals when our ambulances assist them, it is not the first time. We see them day in and day out. We get to know them by their first name, we see what street corners they hang out on and too many times watch them slowly decline in health and selfrespect. Its almost as if you are watching them commit suicide slowly because they cant get into a facility that can help them out. This cycle that i speak of is not only a detriment to the resources of the department but more importantly a detriment to the individuals we are watching slowly fall into greater and grader disrepair. Our Union Supports the implementation of lauras law because these Services Free up the resources of the Fire Department but also will help provide a Community Based individualized treatment that is needed by these individuals and Mental