Bipolar Lives Matter Inc

Bipolar Lives Matter Inc, a MA nonprofit corporation, which has applied but not yet been granted 501(c)(3) status as an educational nonprofit, does business as #BipolarLivesMatterTM on our website and in social media, is a community primarily for the benefit of people with bipolar disorders and other mental health diagnoses who have been traumatized by law enforcement or the mental health care practices, their families and friends. We share our stories and make them available to law and policy organizations, and interested members of the public. We collect cases that discuss civil rights law issues and show again the stories and the lack of justice in the courts. We share news of developments regarding various local implementations of mental health crisis response teams, a concept that we support. We go further and assert that an entirely separate re-configured Dial 311 should be used in place of 911 for mental health crises and to dispatch specially trained compassionate response units. Further, mental illness must be decriminalized. Laws that criminalize "disorderly conduct," "disturbing the peace," and nonviolently "absconding," i.e., walking out the door, of a mental hospital should not be cause for calling the police but for dialing 311. We operate on a shoestring budget and just were founded. Our President (full time) and Treasurer (part-time tax lawyer) are for now volunteering their time.