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MHLAC & Co-Signors Send Letter to Senate Ways & Means Opposing Portion of Health Care Safety Bill
S.1718, An Act requiring health care employers to develop and implement programs[…]
6 Fundamental Rights Bill Heads to Ways & Means!
In January, S.1389, An Act Modernizing the 6 Fundamental Rights, moved[…]
Both House & Senate Move Peer Respite Bill Forward
Updated on March 12, 2026 to reflect changes in the House[…]
ACTION CENTER
If you are interested in supporting a bill or how to get involved, this is the section for you! Click on the bill you’re interested in for details or check out general info on getting involved.
H.5229/S.1389, An Act modernizing the six (6) fundamental rights addresses the rights of people receiving services in any program run, contracted or licensed by the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health.
A summary of the rights that the current law protects is available by clicking here. You can view the proposed bill versions by clicking on the bill number above.
Currently, the bill is in the Massachusetts Senate and House Ways & Means Committees. This is likely the last step before the bill would end up in front of the Governor for final approval.
There are also some differences between the House and Senate versions which will need to be resolved in conference between the House and Senate before it can go before the Governor. Some of the difference is just the style of writing, but there are also some content differences.
For example, the House version is stronger on protections for trans people, particularly related to hormone access when in the hospital.
Right now, there are two clear ways to get involved:
- Take part in a letter campaign (organized by the Wildflower Alliance) focused on asking the Senate to adopt House changes as they relate to protections for trans people.
- Write a letter of support for the legislation overall to the House and Senate Ways & Means leadership.
It can also be useful to contact the legislators in your own district to ask them to support this bill with their colleagues. If you aren’t sure who your legislators are, use the buttons below this section to find out.
PLEASE NOTE: We always encourage people to include their own personal stories and ways they’ve been impacted and ways they’ve been impacted when writing to legislators! Stories are often the best way to be memorable.
Although this law is specific to Massachusetts, we welcome support from anyone and anywhere. The issues we’re dealing with here are not unique to MA. We are also all too aware that laws that get passed here can have significant impact on how things play out in other areas (and vice versa).
Learn more below in the talking points and contact info sections or in the resource section below!
Below are examples of key talking points in support of this bill (Don’t worry about trying to include them all! Pick a few that feel most meaningful to you or that you can connect to a personal story you want to share!):
- Five of the six Fundamental Rights were enacted in 1997 and haven’t been updated since. There are multiple ways in which they have become out-of-date.
- The original law offers little recourse when rights are violated. As a result, there are daily violations of these rights across the state. The proposed bill establishes a framework for accountability.
- Many people both receiving AND providing services are unaware of – or insufficiently familiar with – these rights which needs to change.
- Routine violations include lack of access to make and receive private phone calls, lack of flexibility for visits from guests (including legal advocates) and lack of access to information about these rights overall.
- The proposed bill addresses the reality that few people communicate by ‘snail’ mail these days and requires regular access to e-mail.
- It also addresses disability access issues, including requiring access to video phones for deaf people and similar.
- The bill addresses the need for culturally specific access to relevant personal care products for marginalized communities including Black, Indigenous and other people of color (BIPOC) and trans people (including hormone access in the House version of the bill).
- The original law was written at a time with Peer Supporters and Recovery Coaches were not common roles. People in these roles now play a critical part in many people’s support system. The proposed bill adds these and other roles to the list of providers and supporters who can more easily access people (who want their support), even when they’re staying on a locked unit.
- A significant contributor to rights violations has been lack of clarity about definitions, particularly where visitors are concerned. The proposed bill helps clarify that.
- The intention of the six Fundamental Rights has been to help ensure that people receiving mental health services in Massachusetts have, are aware of and are able to exercise their rights. However, having rights, seeing them violated and having no recourse to hold people accountable for that can be more harmful than not having rights at all. It is essential that these rights not only exist but that providers are accountable for following them. This bill will reduce powerlessness and increase the likelihood that this happens.
- Tensions, rights violations and a sense of powerlessness increases the risk of both suicide and aggression toward others.
- It is difficult to benefit from provider supports when there is no trust and no sense of personal agency on the part of people receiving services. This bill will provide a pathway to improving trust between those providing and receiving services and thus will also help increase the potential positive impact of services, as well.
- Clear laws and improved trust can only serve to make the provider’s job easier, as well.
To take part in the letter campaign put together by the Wildflower Alliance, click here!
All letters supporting the House and Senate Ways & Means Committees to pass this legislation can be sent to the following people:
- House Chair, Aaron M Michlewitz, 617.722.2990 Aaron.M.Michlewitz@mahouse.gov
- House Assistant Vice Chair, Kip A. Diggs, 617.722.2380 Kip.Diggs@mahouse.gov
- Senate Chair, Michael J. Rodrigues, 617.722.1114 Michael.Rodrigues@masenate.gov
- Senate Vice Chair, Jo M. Comerford, 617.722.1532 Jo.Comerford@masenate.gov
You can view and reach out to the full Senate Ways & Means Committee HERE and the full House Ways & Means Committee HERE
Though not required, we welcome you sharing a copy of your letter with us at info@rootsup.info!
A sample letter is available on the Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee (MHLAC) website HERE.
Please remember that it is always best to personalize your letter as much as possible, but if you don’t have time to do that we very much appreciate your using the form letter to increase numbers, as well!
H.5231/S.1381, An Act establishing peer-run respite centers throughout the Commonwealth, seeks to increase the number of peer respites in Massachusetts to at least one per county. It would also establish the first BIPOC specific peer respite, as well as another LGBTQIA+ specific peer respite.
At present, there are two peer respites in Western Massachusetts (Afiya and Anemoni) and three peer respites in Central Massachusetts.
Currently, the bill is in the Massachusetts Senate and House Ways & Means Committees. This is likely the last step before the bill would end up in front of the Governor for final approval.
Right now, we are encouraging people to write to the House and Senate Ways and Means Chairs & Co-Chairs to encourage them to pass this bill.
PLEASE NOTE: We always encourage people to include their own personal stories and ways they’ve been impacted and ways they’ve been impacted when writing to legislators! Stories are often the best way to be memorable.
Although this bill is specific to Massachusetts, we welcome support from anyone and anywhere. Peer respite legislation has gotten increasingly common in states across the country and what happens in one state ultimately affects us all!
Learn more below in the talking points and contact info sections or in the resource section below!
Below are examples of key talking points in support of this bill (Don’t worry about trying to include them all! Pick a few that feel most meaningful to you or that you can connect to a personal story you want to share!):
- In the last 20 years, peer respites have grown from just a few respites available across three states to dozens of respites in at least 16 states. Numbers continue to be on the upswing because of their value and demonstrated efficacy.
- Research has found a number of positive impacts related to peer respite. For example, research from the Human Services Research Institute found a 70% reduction in likelihood that someone who has used a peer respite will return to using the hospital.
- Another critical impact research has found is an increase in ‘self-reliance’. In other words, people who stay at a peer respite appear to have more confidence that they will be able to navigate a future crisis without intervention from the clinical crisis system.
- Research has also found an increase in sense of being a part of a community from people who have stayed at a peer respite.
- Peer respite emphasizes self-determination and personal agency which are strongly associated with reductions in thoughts of suicide. On the other hand, data suggests that there can be as much as a 100X increase in risk of suicide following a stay on an inpatient psychiatric unit.
- Peer respite and other crisis alternatives have strong potential for diverting people from hospitals and Emergency Departments and positively impacting the ED boarding crisis.
- Peer respite is cheaper than conventional clinical care. Average costs of a stay on an inpatient unit range from $11,000 to over $15,000. A stay at a peer respite is typically under $5,000.
- Peer respites can also help prevent or interrupt a cycle of someone going in and out of hospitals or otherwise getting stuck in the mental health system. This can generate additional savings by preventing future hospital stays, as well as reducing the likelihood of someone ending up on long-term disability.
- Peer respites also help prevent harms that can result from failures to pay rent or bills that can happen when someone is in the hospital and has minimal ability to contact people or access bills and other information.
- Although it’s great that Massachusetts already has five peer respites, that falls far short of being accessible to most parts of the state. In order to fully realize the benefits, at least one per county is needed.
- Even in areas where peer respites exist, demand is so high that they almost always have wait lists to get in. Having to wait prevents communities from fully realizing the benefit of a program that can divert people from hospitals and Emergency Departments.
- Peer respites often reach people who would be afraid to reach out for help at all and/or who feel alienated from the conventional clinical system.
- Affinity group peer respites (such as those that are BIPOC or LGBTQIA+ specific) have an unmatched ability to create culturally specific spaces led by and for people who are among the most marginalized and vulnerable within our communities.
- Peer respites are founded on harm reduction principles. They make space to talk about ‘taboo topics’ (like suicide, self-injury, etc.) that many people feel unable to talk about elsewhere, as well as making space for many paths forward.
All letters asking the House and Senate Ways & Means Committees to pass this legislation can be sent to the following people:
- House Chair, Aaron M Michlewitz, 617.722.2990 Aaron.M.Michlewitz@mahouse.gov
- House Assistant Vice Chair, Kip A. Diggs, 617.722.2380 Kip.Diggs@mahouse.gov
- Senate Chair, Michael J. Rodrigues, 617.722.1114 Michael.Rodrigues@masenate.gov
- Senate Vice Chair, Jo M. Comerford, 617.722.1532 Jo.Comerford@masenate.gov
You can view and reach out to the full Senate Ways & Means Committee HERE and the full House Ways & Means Committee HERE
Though not required, we welcome you sharing a copy of your letter with us at info@rootsup.info!
H.1801 / S.1115, An Act to provide continuum of care for severe mental illness, is the latest attempt to bring Involuntary Outpatient Commitment (IOC, better known as “Assisted Outpatient Treatment” or “AOT”) to Massachusetts. Massachusetts is one of only two states and territories remaining in the US without an IOC law.
In brief, unlike Involuntary INPATIENT Commitment which focuses on forced commitment to inpatient psychiatric units, IOC focuses on a form of court order that forces people to follow treatment orders even in the privacy of their own home and under threat of being summoned to court and/or sent to a locked psychiatric unit if they do not.
In February, 2026, the House sent H.1801 to ‘study’. This basically means the bill is off the table for the rest of this legislative session. However, the Senate moved S.1115 forward all the way to Senate Ways and Means. If the Senate Ways and Means passes the bill forward again, they will then need to see if the House will bring H.1801 back from study and agree to move it forward, too (either in the form that the Senate wants to move forward or in an amended version reached through collaboration between both sides).
There are two important steps you can take to get involved right now:
- Send a letter to the House Ways & Means Chair and Co-chair thanking them for sending the bill to study and asking them to remain firm on that decision, even if the Senate passes their version of the bill favorably out of Ways & Means.
- Send a letter to the Senate Ways & Means Chair and Co-chair asking them not to move the bill forward out of Ways & Means.
Although this law is specific to Massachusetts, we welcome support from anyone and anywhere. Involuntary Outpatient Commitment poses a serious threat to the rights and wellbeing of people with psychiatric histories across this country and beyond and what happens in one state inevitably impacts others.
Learn more below in the talking points and contact info sections or in the resource section below!
If you have time, we strongly urge you to check out the IOC resource section below. It’s full of articles, videos, podcasts and fact sheets with lots of information about why this bill is dangerous to our community.
Below are examples of key talking points in support of this bill (Don’t worry about trying to include them all! Pick a few that feel most meaningful to you or that you can connect to a personal story you want to share!):
- Higher quality, more rigorous studies have failed to find positive impacts from IOC.
- Most “positive” results are being reported from deeply flawed studies focused on limited geography (almost entirely New York). For example, some studies reporting positive results use primarily self-reported data collected by people working within the IOC program which is a conflict of interest and likely to result in fear-based responses and biased data analysis.
- Results of research with positive findings are also often skewed by a high dropout rate (nearly one third) when people die or disappear. This inevitably makes results look more positive than they are as the people ‘dropping out’ are not generally experiencing positive outcomes.
- While big claims are made about IOC’s ability to reduce homelessness, hospitalization rates and criminal involvement, some studies have found limited or even negative impacts on these areas.
- Higher quality studies routinely find that participants experience an increase in coercion. Coercion and force are now associated with increased risk of suicide and aggression.
- Proponents of IOC generally re.ly on highly debatable concepts like “Anosognosia”. Anosognosia is a recognized neurological condition for people who’ve had strokes or other brain injuries. However, it has not been validated as a concept for people with psychiatric histories and often ignores the many reasons why people might deny their diagnoses or avoid treatment
- Ignoring mistrust of the system doesn’t lead to improvements in the future. Research tells us that people are not more likely (and may be less likely) to follow their treatment orders after having been subject to IOC.
- Research has found significant disparities, particularly for Black and Brown people who are already more likely to be subjected to force in the psychiatric system.
- IOC is very costly to implement and pulls funds away from more effective supports.
- The Governmental Accountability Office (GAO) – a federal body responsible for reporting to Congress – recently came out with a report labeling IOC’s efficacy as “inconclusive” and recognizing some of the studies showing positive outcomes as deficient.
- Proponents of IOC argue that IOC isn’t force, but rather that it prevents force. However, when asked directly, many people say they would prefer periodic inpatient stays over an IOC order.
- IOC proponents claim that IOC sets a high bar that would mean only a very small minority of people would qualify for an order. However, most laws include criteria along the lines of “two hospitalizations in three years” which would apply to many people at the most difficult times in their life.
The priority is to send letters to the Senate Ways & Means Chair and Co-Chair urging them to NOT pass this bill. Their contact info is:
- Senate Chair, Michael J. Rodrigues, 617.722.1114 Michael.Rodrigues@masenate.gov
- Senate Vice Chair, Jo M. Comerford, 617.722.1532 Jo.Comerford@masenate.gov
You can also send a letter to the House thanking Representatives (from the House Judiciary Committee) for sending the bill to study and urging them to not reverse their decision, regardless of what the Senate chooses to do. Their contact info is:
- House Chair, Aaron M Michlewitz, 617.722.2990 Aaron.M.Michlewitz@mahouse.gov
- House Assistant Vice Chair, Kip A. Diggs, 617.722.2380 Kip.Diggs@mahouse.gov
You can view and reach out to the full Senate Ways & Means Committee HERE and the full House Ways & Means Committee HERE
Though not required, we welcome you sharing a copy of your letter with us at info@rootsup.info!
H.4767/S.1718, An Act requiring health care employers to develop and implement programs to prevent workplace violence, is a bill focused on requiring employers to take measures to increase workplace safety for health care workers. Although health care worker safety is something pretty much everyone can agree is a valid concern, Section 5 in the House version and section 3 in the Senate version raise serious concerns.
Specifically, the respective sections increase penalties for people who assault a health care worker and shift the charge from a misdemeanor to a felony. While this can seem like it makes sense on the surface, it doesn’t take into account that many people who might be charged are in crisis. Additionally, in some instances, they are people experiencing forced treatment and may see themselves as acting in self-defense.
Of greatest concern, when someone is charged with a felony, it can have serious long-term impact on their ability to get housing, employment and more.
In November, 2025, the House Ways & Means Committee passed the bill. It is still sitting in the Senate Ways & Means awaiting a vote. If the Senate passes it, members of the House and Senate Ways and Means Committees will need to go into conference to come up with a final bill to put before the Governor for final approval and to be passed into law.
There is high risk that this bill will be passed and go into law with the problematic section intact. Action is needed to prevent that from happening.
Please consider sending a letter to the Senate Ways & Means Chair and Co-chair asking them not to move the bill forward unless the aforementioned section has been removed.
Although this law is specific to Massachusetts, we welcome support from anyone and anywhere. Laws of this nature pose a serious threat to people across all regions.
Learn more below in the talking points and contact info sections or in the resource section below!
If you have time, we strongly urge you to check out the resource section below, including the letter that the Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee (MHLAC) and co-signors sent to the Senate about this bill.
Below are examples of key talking points in support of striking the relevant section (Don’t worry about trying to include them all! Pick a few that feel most meaningful to you or that you can connect to a personal story you want to share!):
- There is no evidence that harsher penalties will reduce violence.
- This section would turn lesser offenses from misdemeanors into felonies, such that even minor infractions could result in long sentences and substantial fines.
- Existing penalties for assault and assault & battery, particularly on health care providers, are substantial.
- Focusing on such punishments detracts from other more effective solutions.
- Higher penalties will get in the way of effective treatment and opportunities to rebuild one’s life including interfering with housing, employment and educational opportunities.
- Higher penalties would exacerbate the current crisis of forensically-involved patients filling our DMH inpatient psychiatric units and would jeopardize state policy initiatives to divert people from the criminal legal system.
- Increasing penalties also increases the risk to people receiving services as it furthers power imbalances and diminishes incentives for staff to use approaches that focus on de-escalation and avoiding threats.
- This section is likely to worsen racial and other similar disparities given those disparities already exist in the legal and other systems.
The priority is to send letters to the Senate Ways & Means Chair and Co-Chair urging them to NOT pass this bill. Their contact info is:
- Senate Chair, Michael J. Rodrigues, 617.722.1114 Michael.Rodrigues@masenate.gov
- Senate Vice Chair, Jo M. Comerford, 617.722.1532 Jo.Comerford@masenate.gov
You can also send a letter to the House asking them to consider striking the section should they go into conference, but the goal is to prevent it from reaching that point.
If it reaches that point and you want to reach out to the House, here are the relevant points of contact:
- House Chair, Aaron M Michlewitz, 617.722.2990 Aaron.M.Michlewitz@mahouse.gov
- House Assistant Vice Chair, Kip A. Diggs, 617.722.2380 Kip.Diggs@mahouse.gov
You can view and reach out to the full Senate Ways & Means Committee HERE.
Though not required, we welcome you sharing a copy of your letter with us at info@rootsup.info!
