you began and supervisor chiu, i want to talk to you at this time. you said mitch katz convinced you laura's law was wrong. laura's law works. nevada shows, city of new york with kendra's law shows that kendra's law can and will save lives. it gives the police a tool so that people can be treated instead of jailed. and your mental health court in san francisco proves it. i think that all of you would do well to attend the graduation ceremonies and see the people who have been treated and rehabilitated. dr. peter [speaker not understood] described mental illness, it is a physically-based illness, a disability of the brain and the person. unless the person is defeated -- unless that person is treated, they will be defeated, for their brain cannot work.

and you can pass all the laws saying, don't pan handle, but if people have a mental disability where they can't comprehend the law -- and i watch it on my own street. the people -- the mentally ill people on our street are my friends. i talk to them. i try to convince them to take their medicine. one guy wanted to fight with me. i said, i'm not going to fight with you. one of us is going to hurt. they sleep at the foot bridge down at the school nearby. and i saw the custodian trying to lead somebody out, and i explained to him that this person is mentally ill, what was wrong with him, what could be done to save them. now, mitch katz went down to work on mental health ward to keep his medical license. if you talk to a psych emergency services doctor they'd tell you he didn't know what he was doing. they'll tell you further he forced out dr. bob oken as the chief psychiatrist in san francisco. bob oken is one of the greatest psychiatrists in the world.

he's a pillar of doctors without borders. he's treated people around the world. he was the director of mental health in massachusetts. he was a director of mental health in new hampshire. he's practicing on market street in private practice now. the reason he was forced out is because he wouldn't get people out of the acute ward beds when they were going to die on the streets because they hadn't been stabilized. and if you take people and you put them in a ward, you can stabilize them. and jennifer johnson, who is the deputy public attorney who handles cases in the mental health clinic, she said, you know, she represents 160 clients. if they were treated and as they're treated, it makes a difference. their lives are saved. i came to this city after i came back from korea in the '50s. i had the privilege of writing a story about the giants coming to san francisco.

and i worked in the california legislature and the oregon legislature. and i saw the beginnings of the current law. there are civil rights laws. there is nothing wrong with that, except that the idea was you just get them back on the streets and they're all going to get well. you get them out of the state hospitals, they're all going to get well. well, first of all, they can't handle their medication. they can't handle treatment. they have to be put in a ward or they have to be put under laura's law where their medication is supervised. if you're going to give them a chance to live. and the people who aren't treated are the people who self-medicate and they have a major portion of the street drug clients. they're the people who self-medicate on alcohol. and when i was putting together two major programs in berkeley which were teleconferencing [speaker not understood]

berkeley and ucsf on mental health and public policy and mental health and law, and you can look at those programs by going to mental health law symposium, all of them together on the web and see what those people said. and the last putting together, willie brown, and i know willie brown for years. and i said, willie, i think the majority of your homeless are mentally ill. he said majority? he said you're way too conservative. he as said the vast majority. he said if i could get them to take their medication, i could save this city millions and millions of dollars. the department of health talks about saving money, you're not saving money. you're spending all of that money and way more in police and enforcement activities. you're putting people in prison for life. and look at the guy who was put in prison who was a truck driver. they couldn't handle him because he was schizophrenic,

paranoid schizophrenic. so, they put him in zoll tear i for a year. when he came out he wanted to sue the state. the state wouldn't let him. so, what did he do? he planted his 18 wheeler in the side of the state capital and cost the city $80 million. i just want to mention one more thing, and that is that i have a very dear friend who is indicted for murder in san francisco. he cut off the head of a man over -- alleged he cut off his head. he hasn't been tried. in the office depot at geary and [speaker not understood]. this man has been to my house. his father is one of the foremost authorities in the world on chinese art. his siblings are afraid of him and would never let him in the house. we knew he was collecting arms

and ammunition. we knew he had a problem. i broke up a series of incidents. if you had had laura's law and the police had picked him up time and again, if you had had laura's law, he could have been treated and that man would not have died. and that wasn't the man he was looking for. that man was an accident. we know who he was looking for, and we don't know whatever happened to his girlfriend and their baby. so, anyway, what i'm saying to you is get real. get advice and understand what mental illness is, and let's flesh out the facilities in san francisco and take them out of the prisons and out of the jails and treat them so that they can live like the rest of us. thank you very much and thank you, sean. (applause)

>> thank you, supervisor elsbernd. our next presentation will be our colleague from district 2, supervisor farrell who also is going to present for supervisor chu. >> thank you, president chiu. colleagues, today i get the honor of bringing forward someone, a great resident in my district and someone who has been super active not only in our neighborhoods, but also in the mental health board and that's glenn ford. glenn, where are you? come on forward, lynn. (applause) >> colleagues, i'll let you know a little about lynn. she's a native californian, lived in san francisco since 1988. she's an attorney with the united states court, a mother of four. active in our community and on the cal hollow association board of directors and very interested in both brain health and hour owe science. on the mental health board lynn has worked to increase the board standards and content of

mhb more engaging and directed. produce more professional annual reports. i think most importantly really worked tirelessly to make sure the interests of the mental health community are well represented not only in the district but across san francisco. she does a great service to her role in the mental health board ask lynn i want to thank you. you've been the district 2 appointee since i came into office. i want to thank you for your service. i know you've been doing it for a while and i want to thank you for all of your efforts not just on our behalf but the mental health community. * district 2 behalf want to honor you for serving and thank you for all you do. (applause) thank you, supervisor farrell and thank you, members of the board, for this recognition. given that san francisco has in per capita terms an extraordinarily large population of people suffering from serious mental illness, the mental health board is the most important policy body that

most san franciscans have never heard of. the mental health board is charged under state law with a range of important responsibilities designed it provide public accountability for the mental health system for the city and county including accountability directly to the individuals it serves. the law, institution code section 66.4 02 was required to assess the mental health impact from realignment of services to state and county on services delivered to clients and the local community. i hope and anticipate that my colleagues and i on the mental health board will rollup our sleeves and tackle this and other statutory goals with vigor this term. to the members of the board of supervisors, i encourage you to appoint individuals of creativity, talent, and vision to the mental health board and to attend our meetings, contribute your insights and ideas, and otherwise support our mission and our endeavors. thank you. (applause)

(applause) >> colleagues and members of the public, i actually have the honor also of presenting supervisor carmen chu's honoree

today and recognizing him. supervisor chu is stuck on the east coast due to the storms out there and, so, i'd like to call up officer rich chu. (applause) >> thanks, officer, for being here. so, colleagues, supervisor chu is honoring officer jew for his work of the homeless outreach officer for terra val station. (applause) >> officer ju was hired by the police department in 1990 and during his 22 years he's worked on a variety of assignments. he's worked in uniformed patrol, in plain clothes at the academy in bayview ingleside, northern and terra val stations. for the last 4-1/2 years he has been assigned as a homeless outreach officer. quite often police officers as we know are the point of first contact for people in crisis and many of the individuals that officer ju meets with in his work as a homeless outreach officer have shown serious

mental health issues that contribute to their homelessness. officer ju does an amazing job of connecting these individuals with resources to help them off the streets, and into treatment and case management they need with sensitivity and professionalism. supervisor chu really wishes she could be here and we're sorry with the storms, but really wantedth to personally say how much she appreciates all your work on behalf of not only the station and the mental health community but the homeless outreach that you do on behalf of terra val station. and it's a real honor to present this on her behalf and thank you for all that you do for our city. (applause) i just wanted to thank supervisor carmen chu for recognizing me for this type of work and the members of the board of supervisors. it's not an easy job to do coming from a law enforcement point of view and trying to stop doing the enforcement part and do more of the service part that we do. but also with the help of hope and the homeless outreach team

and department of health -- [cheering and applauding] back there, with the various city agencies and the other law enforcement agencies, it wouldn't be possible to give this type of serves says to the people we contact. but also in addition to helping out the residents in the district because we're trying to educate them, too, as far as what is going on out there in relation to homeless and the mental health. thank you again. [cheering and applauding]

(applause) >> thank you, and congratulations. i want to take a moment to acknowledge our representative from mayor lee's office, bevan dufty who helps coordinate many of our mental health programs here in the city. he has a couple honorees who have to leave in a couple moments so i wanted to give him a moment to do the presentations. >> thank you, mr. president, members of the board. if i could ask [speaker not understood] to come up? [cheering and applauding] >> and i'd like to welcome jason's son to come up, if he'd come up and join us. i've never met him and i hear a lot about him. i've never seen jason in a tie, so, this is a pretty exciting

day for me. come on, buddy. on behalf of mayor lee, first let me acknowledge supervisor cohen for partnering with the mental health board to create this event and for all of you for participating and i certainly hope this becomes an annual recognition. i think it is so important to bring recognition. and in this case we're honoring jason albertson. jason is someone i've had the opportunity to work with over the past 10 months. i think he is the epitome of a great public servant. jason is involved in leading our homeless outreach team, our engagement team that works with individuals who are on the street and in shelter. he brings the skills of a social worker, a case manager, clinical supervisor, program designer, he's working within department of public health to help redesign our mobile assistance patrol, and he is just an outstanding individual and a very proud dad. and, so, mayor lee is tremendously honored to

recognize jason for his leadership award. [cheering and applauding] thank you, and thank you, everybody. thank you to the board of supervisors. i could not do this work without the department of public health behind me. i could not do this work without the incredible team, some of whom are here from homeless outreach team. i could not do this work without the outreach specialists who are on the street, who find particularly vulnerable homeless people, who seek to engage with them and bring them to places of shelter. i could not do this work without the mentors who have taught me, who have trained me and who have supported me, some of whom have helped me for 20 years and corrected me when i needed it. homelessness will not end until we recognize the need of the community to end homelessness.

the fact that i'm able to have some success is because i have a community standing behind me. and we organize our community to take care of our homeless brothers and sisters, the people who are on the streets, the people who by and large have very little hope, are coping with huge burdens of illness, then we will be successful in dealing with humantarian mission that is the hallmark of the department of public health. thank you, everybody, for this award. [cheering and applauding] >> outstanding. and next if i could bring up joe robinson. (applause) >> i want to acknowledge joe as one of the most important colleagues [speaker not understood] at the department of public health in bringing leadership to our public health

work in and around issues of mental health. joe brings her background working for the sheriff's department and jail health services, and now is a leader of community behavioral health services. jo has been one of the most important city leaders for our therapeutic court system such as our behavioral health court and other models that really seek to keep individuals who have mental illness out of the justice system and to the district 7 honoree we actually have a better court based on what the goals of laura's law were and our lcs court and so many innovations and jo is tremendously respected by all the members of her department and it is difficult because mental health is never run as adequately as it should be, but throughout the organization jo is someone who is respected for her intellect, experience, knowledge and leadership. so mayor lee wanted to recognize and honor jo for her work. (applause) thank you, board of

supervisors, mostly for your ongoing support of mental health. when i go to sacramento and meet with my colleagues up there, i feel so privileged to come from san francisco. so privileged to know that our elected officials are incredibly supportive of the health department and of mental health in particular. so, i thank you for that. i also thank you for letting me have the best job in the world. i was reminded of this about two weeks ago when i went to a celebration, celebrating some of our client's lives and their work on their own recovery. it was one of the best events i have ever gone to and i was reminded why i'm here. i was reminded why jason is doing what jason is doing, what the behavioral health board -- excuse me, the mental health board is doing. it's there to improve the lives

of people in our community and thereby improving our community. so, thank you all for your support for mental health. please keep it up and let me know what i can do for you. [cheering and applauding] >> our next presentation will be by supervisor jane kim. >> thank you. and also i wanted to say real quickly, laura guzman, i love the work that you do so much and i think our city would be so much less if we couldn't call mnrc one of refuge in our city. mental health, i want to thank former supervisor bevan dufty and supervisor malia cohen for suggesting that we honor individuals that work in this area for mental health awareness month. for many reasons this issue is something that is of great importance to me. one, because of the district i represent. this is actually one of our top

priority issues in our district. it is something that we in our office face every day, how do we address the issue of mental health in this city. and second, for me it's very personal. i've watched many of my really, really good friends and family members struggle with mental health and i see how difficult and challenging it is. so, i do want to thank everyone in this room for the work that they do on this incredibly fine issue. i'm sorry to get emotional. my honoree for mental health awareness month has served the bay area for over 30 years. and for the last 18 years has worked at coner's house director of housing for community service and his name is seth [speaker not understood]. [cheering and applauding]

>> seth hold an m.a. in clinical psychology from [speaker not understood] college in san francisco, a masters in public health at u.c. berkeley. and he has always believed in engaging people where they are. [speaker not understood] the process of harm reduction and the fears. he believes in supportive housing as primarily a [speaker not understood] and not just a method to deliver services. seth has worked for office on the [speaker not understood] ordinance which we passed unanimously today. thank you. >> great. >> and is among the original members of the city's task force and is still a member to this day. seth has been a strong and independent voice and has never been afraid of speaking his mind. and i really truly respect that. as many of you know, seth will be retiring on november 1st and his departure will be a tremendous loss for the city and in particular for the [speaker not understood] that includes the tenderloin, south of market and sixth street. he has a long history of advocating for our residents

and the people of san francisco. and i just want to say a couple of things. i don't speak as a mental health expert, but more than a lot of the tools that we use, whether it's sfgtv or medication and all those sorts of things, but i've often seen at the root of mental health issues the lack of care and compassion that we show both in the services we provide and in our policy making. and i see this every day when i walk through tenderloin, when i walk through sixth street and south of market and in the mission. and i think it's incredibly important that when we as policy makers think about how to best address a lot of these issues that we come from a place of compassion of policy making when we approach these things. people ask me why shelter reform is a priority for our office, why i spent a night in our shelters, why it's so important for me to represent sro tenants in our district.

it's because i know so many people that have been impacted by mental health. and nobody in this chamber ever wants to see their grandmother, their cousin or brother or father in one of our shelters, or even in some of our worst sor buildings here in the city where often individuals who don't have a family or group of friends to support them land because of the challenges they face with mental health. and i think for that very reason we have to fight for all of these individuals in our neighborhoods like they are our family members. and when i spent a night at our shelter, you really saw that it wasn't economic challenges, although that is often why they end up in our safety net, but it's really a lot of the mental health challenges that i think we as a society really, you know, develop and exacerbate here in this country. and i think that we must work hard to address these issues. otherwise they'll never be able to address the issue of homelessness and pourv pi that we see here in san francisco.

[speaker not understood] that i often hear from our residents that address that very issue, but the love and compassion that many of our social service providers here provide. so, thank you, seth. you will be greatly missed and we appreciate your service to the city and county. (applause) thank you, supervisor kim, board of supervisors. maybe i shouldn't retire with all this approval. just to echo our poet laureate who spoke early on in this section, i couldn't do this, i wouldn't be worthy of this award without the people i've worked with at conard house for 18 years and the mental health community in san francisco and you guys. and been so supportive to social justice issues, and to the whole social justice community. i have really soft spots in my heart for the coalition on homelessness and a number of

other organizations. so, thank you all. (applause) >> thank you. supervisor kim. why don't we now hear from supervisor mar. >> thank you, president chiu. i wanted to thank [speaker not understood] and the mental health board members. alisa landy is my appointment and she's been wonderful educating me so much about the need of our richmond district to create a healthier richmond. and i know that there is an acknowledgment of the death in the officemax parking lot a few years ago when i first started as supervisor. so, the issues are very real

for me. in 1984 i was a receptionist for an exceptional multi-cultural, culturally competent agency we used to call it richmond nazi center, [speaker not understood]. my two honorees i asked to come up are alison chin and yuka [speaker not understood]. so, alison and yuka. i also wanted to just state -- yes, please come forward. (applause) >> i would also like to say that president chiu and others acknowledged that it takes a village to really support a healthier community, and i think they come out of, in many ways, the wellness center from washington high school in addition to rams and the community-based mental health services that rams represent. alison chin is a licensed marriage and family therapist with over 15 years of experience in community and human services. she began as a research

assistant intern for one of the first u.s. studies on hiv, substance abuse in asian american populations and ms. chin has since worked with a range of culturally diverse communities of children, youth and families providing clinical assessment, hydrotherapy and health education. she's worked with rams since 2006 as a behavioral health counselor for teens and families providing culturally competent assessment therapy and crisis intervention services, especially for students on-site at washington high school in the richmond district and also lincoln high school in the sunset district. and she previously served at burton high school through the wellness initiative. and i'd just like to give tremendous props to our city's wellness initiative and wellness center throughout the city as well. ms. chin serves with passion and dedication working with culturally diverse youth and families while demonstrating

tireless advocacy providing mental health services. thank you so much, alison chin, for being here. also we have yuka hachiuma who is a marriage and licensed therapist with 10 years in the mental health field. she is a bi-cultural, buy -- bilingual japanese speaking therapist. [speaker not understood]. she especially serves students and family with limited resources and youth that receive special education services while providing consultation to school faculty and administrators and i'd just like to thank erica and the washington community high school also for their support of the wellness center and the great partnership with rams as well. while at rams she previously served as the first coordinator for the agency's launch of the summer bridge program, summer mentoring program for high scl