The Massachusetts Respite & Rights Coalition – made up of several organizations (Roots Up, Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee, MassAct and Wildflower Alliance) and individual advocates – has been working for the last few years on passing critical legislation on peer respites and the 6 Fundamental Rights. The two bills are as follows:
- H.5231/S.1389, An Act to Establish Peer Respites Throughout the Commonwealth: This bill will increase the number of peer respites throughout the state, with the goal of at least one per county, as well as BIPOC and LGBTQIA+-specific respites.
- H.5229/S.1389, An Act to Modernize the 6 Fundamental Rights: This bill serves to update and strengthen laws for individuals in facilities that are run, contracted and/or licensed by the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health. It will not only update access to e-mail, private phone access and similar, but also add in culturally relevant access to personal care items for BIPOC and trans people (including hormones), as well as creating accountability measures when rights are violated.
We anticipate that the committees will vote on these Acts by the end of their formal session (July 31), but they have many bills still before them. Your voice is needed to help make sure the bills don’t get lost in the shuffle and that they know exactly how important they are!
Please consider calling or sending a letter particularly to the Chairs and Vice Chairs of the House and Senate Ways and Means Committees. Contacting other members and/or your own legislator (especially if they’re on one of the committees!) is also great.
To help ease the process, the Wildflower Alliance created a sign on letter that you can use. You can also go to the ‘Action Center’ on the Roots Up Advocacy page for talking points and committee membership information.
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