Reflecting on Spears’ plight

Re “Leave Britney alone,” Opinion, Feb. 12

Like Asra Q. Nomani, I am the sister of a man with schizophrenia. Like Nomani, I disdained my brother’s behavior as I watched him slip further into what I didn’t understand at the time: untreated mental illness.

Unlike Nomani, I never had an opportunity to apologize to him. Because of California’s involuntary treatment laws, my brother never received any treatment. He never became dangerous enough. Instead, he slid into darkness and has been missing for more than 15 years.

In 2002, California passed landmark legislation that can save many brothers and sisters from similar fates. Known as Laura’s Law, the legislation allows a person who is too ill to recognize the need for help to receive sustained community treatment by court order.

The problem is that, except in Nevada County and a pilot project in L.A. County, it isn’t being used. It is time for the mental health advocates to lobby to change the state’s involuntary treatment laws. And it is time for counties to use and expand use of this particular statute. Treatment for mental illness works, as long as you can get it.

Carla Jacobs

Board Member

Treatment Advocacy

Center, Tustin

Nomani’s stand against covering Spears is hardly holier than thou. I too hoped that I could change the course of Spears’ media coverage: By never opening a link or magazine or newspaper with her name on it, perhaps I could make some sort of difference in her life, by leaving her alone. So far, it hasn’t worked. I wonder what it will take for the media to understand how damaging the coverage is to this woman. It worries me, as a mother with two children of my own, whether this obnoxious coverage will eventually drive her to do irreparable harm to her children or herself.

Julie Wallach

Malibu