San Franciscans eager for CARE Court's impact on spiraling mental health crisis
Victor Pasmore: Spiral Motif in Green, Violet, Blue and Gold: the Coast of the Inland Sea, 1950.
As Newsom's CARE Court rolls out to seven counties (including SF), many are looking forward to its much-needed “overhaul” of CA's response to folks severely disabled by untreated mental illnesses or substance abuse. Local cities' hands are no longer “tied,” says the SF Standard, and can provide care to these residents who are endangering themselves.
The new law, which reforms the state's conservatorship system, expands the definition of “gravely disabled” to include people who are unable to provide themselves basic needs such as food and shelter due to an untreated mental illness or unhealthy drugs and alcohol use. Local governments say current state laws leave their hands tied if a person refuses to receive help.
The law is designed to make it easier for authorities to provide care to people with untreated mental illness or addictions to alcohol and drugs, many of whom are homeless.
The bill was aimed in part at dealing with the state’s homelessness crisis. California is home to more than 171,000 homeless people—about 30% of the nation’s homeless population. The state has spent more than $20 billion in the last few years to help them, with mixed results.
Newsom is pushing his own plan to reform the state's mental health system. Newsom's proposal, which would overhaul how counties pay for mental and behavioral health programs and borrow $6.3 billion to pay for 10,000 new mental health treatment beds, are expected to go before voters next March.
“California is undertaking a major overhaul of our mental health system," Newsom said in a signing announcement Tuesday. “We are working to ensure no one falls through the cracks, and that people get the help they need and the respect they deserve.”
The legislation, authored by Democratic Sen. Susan Eggman, is the latest attempt to update California’s 56-year-old law governing mental health conservatorships — an arrangement where the court appoints someone to make legal decisions for another person, including whether to accept medical treatment and take medications.
The bill was supported by the National Alliance on Mental Illness California and mayors of the biggest California cities, who said the existing conservatorship law has made it challenging to provide mental health treatment to those most in need.
This article originally appeared in the San Francisco Standard. Read the whole thing here.
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