Families Rights Matter2, a national advocacy movement, today announced a comprehensive 10-Point Policy Platform designed to close dangerous gaps in HIPAA and modernize America's mental-health crisis response system. The platform addresses long-standing failures that leave families powerless, patients unprotected, and communities at risk.
"Families are being shut out during the most critical moments of their loved ones' lives," said Leon Shelmire Jr., founder of Families Rights Matter2. "HIPAA was never designed for today's mental-health crisis reality. Our platform brings common-sense solutions that protect patients, empower families, and strengthen public safety."
The 10-point platform includes mandatory family communication during mental-health crises, requiring providers to notify and communicate with families when a loved one is in crisis or unable to make safe decisions. It also calls for national HIPAA training to end provider confusion, updated consent rules for adults in psychiatric crisis, and required safety updates to families.
Other key points include a duty to consider family input, a clear national definition of "incapacity," expanding HIPAA to cover modern crisis systems like 988 and mobile crisis teams, and mandatory state intervention after repeated crisis holds. The platform also demands mental-health crisis response units in every police department and mental-health treatment units in all jails and prisons.
"These reforms are not about politics — they are about saving lives," Shelmire said. "Families deserve to have input, to be included in treatment planning, and to know their loved ones are safe. Communities deserve a crisis system that works. And people in crisis deserve treatment, not abandonment."
Families Rights Matter2 is calling on lawmakers, mental-health leaders, and community organizations to support the platform. The movement is also gathering support through a petition urging reform of HIPAA for family rights in mental health emergencies.
