Executive Summary

Mental Health Advocacy Services (MHAS) advocates on behalf of low-income individuals living in Los Angeles County who have mental health disabilities and are facing legal issues that jeopardize their safety, wellbeing, and stability. MHAS’ clients’ diagnoses and conditions often limit their capacity for self-advocacy, especially when navigating complex systems like the civil justice system. MHAS provides a free attorney for these individuals, increasing their chance of success in their civil case, reducing their stress, and improving their overall physical and mental health outcomes.

Most of the MHAS leadership, staff, and board have either personally experienced a mental health disability or have a close family member experiencing severe mental illness, and so serve clients from a position of firsthand knowledge and lived experience. MHAS helps low-income individuals with mental illness understand their rights and pursue legal action when necessary to obtain reasonable accommodations and equitable treatment at the places where they live, work, and go to school so that they can thrive in these spaces with access to the resources and benefits they need and to which they are legally entitled. MHAS helps clients prevent evictions, negotiate landlord-tenant settlements, obtain public benefits, repair credit/manage consumer debt, expunge criminal records deterring employment or tenancy, and remove obstacles to adequate health care and education. MHAS also trains other agencies and professionals to promote effective services for low-income Angelenos with mental health disabilities, and participates in impact litigation and policy work to establish legal precedents that benefit all individuals with mental health disabilities.

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