2025-2026 Bills We Oppose

An Act to provide continuum of care for severe mental illness (H.1801/S.1115)

WHY WE OPPOSE: MHLAC is part of a broad coalition of Massachusetts organizations and individuals opposing this bill, as it would allow courts to order people living in the community to accept “treatment,” often the administration of medication treatment, against their will. This coercive practice is known as “involuntary outpatient commitment” (IOC) or, euphemistically, as Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT). This bill that promotes IOC is harmful to communities as it disallows individual choice in choosing services and promotes involuntary methods of treatment over the wide range of voluntary alternatives that we know are effective. IOC is also disproportionately harmful to BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities. Read more about why we oppose this here: Involuntary Outpatient Commitment – MHLAC

An Act requiring health care employers to develop and implement programs to prevent workplace violence (H.4767/S.1718)

WHY WE OPPOSE: MHLAC is part of a coalition of organizations opposing Section 3 of this bill (section 5 of the House version) for several reasons: There are already substantial penalties for assault and assault & battery on healthcare providers. Higher penalties will not protect health care workers, and focusing on such punishments detracts from other more effective solutions like de-escalate crisis situations and reducing use of restraints. Higher penalties will also hinder the habilitation and recovery of people in state care and custody and exacerbate the current crisis of forensically-involved patients filling our DMH inpatient psychiatric units. Furthermore, higher penalties would jeopardize state policy initiatives to divert people from the criminal legal system. Rather than increase safety, increasing penalties places patients and residents at risk.

Read our letter of concern here