What Needs to Change
Aaron’s story is why this exists. Be The One is what we’re building because of it.
Our advocacy begins with a belief: independence should not require isolation, and a person should not disappear between systems.
The priorities below describe changes we want to explore and advocate for. They are not statements of current legal requirements, adopted legislation, established clinical standards, or services we currently provide.
01 — Supported Independence at 18
We want supported decision-making to become a routine part of transition-age mental-health care. The goal is not parental control over an adult child. It is a clearer way for young people to choose support while retaining autonomy.
Our focus is on practical pathways that respect privacy and consent, rather than a blanket call to eliminate privacy protections.
- Clearer, standardized consent options.
- Graduated permissions instead of all-or-nothing approaches.
- Routine identification of trusted support people.
- Provider education about communication with chosen supporters.
- Standardized ways to receive caregiver observations.
- Supported decision-making that keeps the young person at the center.
- Opportunities to revisit preferences and permissions as circumstances change, with appropriate safeguards.
- Clear explanations of the distinction between receiving information from supporters and disclosing information to them.
Specific tools would need appropriate legal and clinical review, including consideration of differences between minors and adults.
02 — Continuity-of-Care Reform
Someone Owns the Handoff
A referral should not count as a successful transition. Connection should.
People can move between emergency departments, inpatient care, residential treatment, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient care, outpatient providers, and the justice system. We want responsibility for those transitions to be clear.
Potential policy goals include:
- A named transition coordinator for high-risk cases.
- A documented warm handoff.
- A confirmed receiving provider.
- Short-term post-discharge outreach.
- Appropriate cross-system transfer of relevant records.
- Medication reconciliation.
- Transfer of crisis plans.
- Communication with chosen support people where legally permissible and appropriate.
The question is not only whether a referral was made. It is whether the person actually connected with the next step in care.
03 — Suicide-Watch Reform
Suicide Watch Should Mean Treatment
We want suicide precautions to connect people with assessment, treatment, and continuity, not observation alone.
Our proposed advocacy agenda includes:
- Required clinical evaluation following a suicide attempt.
- An evidence-based treatment plan developed by qualified professionals.
- Medication review by appropriate clinicians.
- Continuity of prescribed psychiatric medication unless clinically contraindicated.
- Clear minimum follow-up standards.
- Safeguards around isolation.
- Transition planning when suicide precautions end.
- Support-person notification when permitted and appropriate.
- Documentation explaining changes to safety status.
These are proposed reform goals for further development with people with lived experience, clinicians, and policy experts.
Were we preventing death—or treating the person who wanted to die?
A Longer-Term Project: Crisis, Not Criminal™
This proposed project belongs within our wider Our Work agenda. We plan to build our healthcare and supported-autonomy work first, while recognizing the personal importance of the intersection between justice and mental health.
Our principle: severe psychiatric symptoms should be recognized and clinically evaluated before behavior arising from those symptoms is treated solely as criminal conduct.
Potential areas of future work include:
- Mental-health screening after crisis-related arrest.
- Continuity of psychiatric medication.
- Appropriate communication between detention settings and existing treatment providers.
- Suicide-risk protocols.
- Diversion when clinically appropriate.
- Psychiatric stabilization before placement.
- Post-attempt treatment standards.
- Advocacy against punitive responses to suicidal behavior.
- Stronger transition planning after release.
This is a future advocacy direction, not an operating program or a claim about the legal or clinical circumstances of any individual case.
How We Want to Work
Listen to young people. Learn from families. Work with clinicians and community partners. Review the evidence. Develop specific proposals. Measure whether change helps.
Connection before crisis. Support without taking over. No one gets lost between systems.