Mental health policy guidance for the people who shape it

We help municipalities, legislators, attorneys, and mental health advocates turn complex gaps in emergency response and mental health law into clear, workable solutions.

Who We Serve

  • Turning complex mental health law into operational policies you can implement.

  • We help you to identify why patients are over-utilizing 911 or cycling in and out of jail in your jurisdiction, and help you develop multi-agency coordination policies to help reduce this use and close gaps in services.

  • California mental health law is dense and fast-changing. We provide the research, analysis, and expert education your team needs to build stronger cases and better advise clients in crisis situations.

  • You know what needs to change in the mental health system. We help you write the bill that delivers real results.

  • We deliver cutomized trainings and create research papers and on mental health law to ground your advocacy in legal and operational reality.

Learn more about our services

5200 Research

When someone is in a mental health crisis and refusing help, families, caregivers and even first responders can often feel powerless. California law actually includes a little-known pathway to ask for a court-ordered mental health evaluation. This paper explains that law, why it matters, and why it is not being used.

Written for legislators, policymakers, mental health advocates, and anyone trying to understand why the system keeps failing the same people.

Featured recently in the Los Angeles Times, LAist AirTalk, The Steinberg Institute InFocus, and the San Diego Union-Tribune.

This analysis also served as background material for SB 1016.

View all media coverage and bill information

Read an Overview
Read the full paper

Our Expertise

Quarter Turn Strategies was built by people who worked inside these systems, and lived the gaps firsthand.

Founding partner Ann Marie Council spent 25 years as a Senior Deputy City Attorney for the City of San Diego, where she developed the LIFT Program: a first-of-its-kind initiative that combined EMS, law enforcement, and medical teams to open legal pathways to treatment, resulting in more than a 90 percent reduction in associated 911 calls.

Fellow founding partner Wendy Moore has spent more than two decades securing resources for first responders, including 15 years as Executive Director of the San Diego Fire-Rescue Foundation.

Our collaborators include clinicians, researchers, and program architects whose work has shaped mental health policy and emergency response at the state and national level.

Meet the team