Each May during Mental Health Awareness Month, the Steinberg Institute announces our Mental Health Champions. We believe it is important to celebrate folks who are having an outsized impact on the mental health of their fellow Californians. They are often unsung heroes, working directly with folks in need of mental health support.
Lee Davis says flatly that without involuntary treatment for her raging psychosis, she would be dead. “It saved my life.” A mental health activist, she chairs the Alameda County Mental Health Advisory Board, which advises the board of supervisors and county officials on mental health policy. Davis acknowledges hers is not a popular view among disability rights advocates, who largely oppose any kind of “forced” treatment for mental illness.