State officials unveiled a program Thursday intended to increase support for California residents who struggle with severe mental illness, substance abuse issues and homelessness.
The proposal — called Care Court, with “care” standing for community assistance, recovery and empowerment — would require each of the state’s 58 counties to create a civil court division focused on mental health that will be able to compel treatment for mentally ill people who may not understand that they need it.
Counties that do not abide by the program, which would be funded by the state, could be punished for failing to do so.
Through the Care Court system, people suffering from mental illness or severe addiction could be sent before a superior court judge if recommended by a family member or social worker who believes the person cannot adequately care for themselves.
People could also be called before a judge if they are accused of a crime or if they are soon to be released from an involuntary psychiatric hold.
The judge would then consider a 12-24-month care plan developed by local clinical workers and could compel the person to undergo treatment if they approve the plan, which can include clinical and psychiatric services, stabilizing medications and ensuring access to housing.
“(Care Court) puts the person with lived experience, puts the people who are suffering on the street at the center of treatment and works to ensure they are empowered during and after effective treatment promotes their overall mental and social stability,” state Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said.
Ghaly and Jason Elliott, a senior counselor to Gov. Gavin Newsom, argued Care Court is conceptually different from existing methods of care for people who cannot care for themselves such as conservatorships and programs under Laura’s Law, which allows court-ordered mental health treatment.
Elliott said most existing court-ordered mental health treatment programs are put in place after someone has been arrested or hospitalized, and Care Court is intended to provide pre-emptive care and treatment.
He added that many who would be eligible for Care Court treatment would not be new to the court system and may already be involved in the conservatorship process or could be at risk of arrest.
“The vision of Care Court is getting to someone earlier in their life before they find themselves either, God forbid, on death’s door or having just potentially committed a crime or needing a conservatorship,” Elliott said.
“We need to treat brain health early before we punish it later,” Newsom said.
Ghaly estimated the state has between 7,000 and 12,000 residents who would be eligible for the Care Court program, including those who would be eligible even if they are not homeless.
The Legislature will be required to approve the Care Court program before it can go into effect as soon as January 2023.
The text of a Care Court bill has yet to be written, according to state officials, and will ultimately include how much state funding the program will need to effectively operate.
Newsom and Elliott argued that while the state approved $12 billion last year for homeless spending and Newsom included an additional $2 billion in his 2022-23 budget proposal, a different approach is needed to reduce homelessness and treat those who are mentally ill.
“We have scale of a problem,” Newsom said. “And it’s going to require a different scale of approach and a new mindset in terms of how we approach it and that’s what Care Court is.”
…. so Newsom set up this plan so he can treat himself – I’m all for it if it’s true 🙂
“Counties that do not abide by the program, which would be funded by the state, could be punished for failing to do so”.
You vill comply!
“Care Court”. The guy who flat out solicits the homeless to California and has us finance it, suddenly realizes there is a scale problem. Read up on this proposal and you will see it has provisions to lock people up who don’t wish to be. Perhaps that is not a bad thing in some cases. But don’t ever look at this guy as a liberal ever again, because he isn’t. He has now become “Lactose, the Intolerant”, er I mean “Newsom, the Intolerant”.
One step forward, and two steps back… California at its finest… “COMPEL” detainment—based on the opinion of a family member or social worker… (Napa State gonna be like…”hey! polish up da silver, yo!”)
Governor Nuisance won’t be happy until he creates the perfect Goodfella Agency with a truly historic and prize-winning ACRONYM in the title…. (sorry guv! c.a.r.e. has already been taken, used, abused, vandalized and brutalized beyond recognition!) Good try, though.
More Government, More programs and eventually more taxes for a segment of the population that probably doesn’t want the help. Some people just can’t be helped unless they want help and are ready to take the plunge. Hope it works, doubtful it will.
And big pharma will be licking it’s chops to sell mind-numbing psychotropic drugs for the program which do little to cure mental illness but just turn patients into zombies.
Better zombies than violent crazies.
I surely hope this program will help the mentally ill …. and thence ALL of us who are potentially negatively affected by their “acting out”.
And we MUST find ways to keep them from buying weapons (of ANY kind).
Why would you hope that this program will do anything different from what’s already in place? What does this new monkey court create that didn’t exist before? Involuntary psych holds? Conservatorship? Diversion programs?
The problem is not that the existing system doesn’t have the tools to “compel” a person to take psych meds or get counseling or go into drug rehab. The problem is that as soon as the existing system starts applying these tools, you have a line of lawyers from here to the East Coast claiming that civil rights of their clients are being violated.
Do you think that just creating another layer of bureaucracy under a stupid acronym will prevent this?
Nice naïve thought that somehow government is going to legislate people from purchasing weapons other than firearms. I say other than firearms since a mentally defective persons are already prevented by both State and Federal statues from owning or possessing firearms.
Since any object can be used as a weapon how would you go about enforcing that? What would be the criteria? You want background checks for buying pencils/pens, butter knives, sporks, frying pans, hammers, bicycles or cars? All of which are common items yet can be used as stabbing or bludgeoning weapons.
Forcing medical attention on people outside of the care, custody and control of a prisoner is extremely problematic legally. The 14th Amendment is a huge hurdle and thankfully so.
This is nothing but a repackaging of conservatorship. The same constitutional limitations will apply just another layer of bureaucracy has been added.
There is an old saying in business marketing: If you cannot change the product, change the packaging.
Some help is desperately needed. There does not seem to be a way to compel ill folks to get help and some of their cases wind up with law enforcement shooting at them. It is a broken system at the moment.
Breaking it down, all for it. Family member diagnosed with mental health issue after returned from Europe at fourteen years of age, were to attend University of Glasgow with International Studies when it all hit. What hit? Drinking and drug use. Fast forward to California our home state. Several years of attempting to work, four drug dealers two dead, one I know where he now lives thanks to the State and this family member on the street having been hospitalized several times. Social Services and his attorney would not and could not place him without him leaving to return to the street. Thankful for the DA’s office of Contra Costa County for what they have done for me, but what needs to happen and our Governor DOES see is those with substance abuse/addiction and mental health issues must be “made” to comply for their and other’s safety. I’m very happy to see this and want it to pass. The Homeless Crisis in California did not start yesterday. Read up please and you probably know how it did begin. Thank you Governor!
So true so obvious what you said. We have a government that is totally useless.
Reminds me when Mayor Newsom of San Francisco began a program Care not Cash.This was the beginning of the Industrial Homeless Complex in San Francisco. The year was 2004. It gave a lot of otherwise unemployable people high paying jobs. I believe the budget at that time was around $13M. San Francisco now spends over $1B and counting. How’s that working out?
Have they tested this anywhere or are they just rolling out across all 58 counties something they think might work. How about seeing how it works by testing this and other ideas in a couple of counties for a few months. What is that phrase: ready, fire, aim.
Guess how much faith I have in seeing a difference. How long will it take for a judge to knock down their meager effort?
Gavin’s polls must be in the basement.
A recent example of how aware and perfectly in touch some state politicians are with their constituency and community.
‘California Assemblywoman Shocked at Homeless Living on City Streets’
“Asks ‘Can we explain this? Who is responsible? …”
Some social media responses,
…“Isn’t it literally your job to understand the situation and do your best to solve it?”
“A political consultant replied: “Democrats have been in the supermajority in the CA legislature for a decade, with a Dem Gov… and they run almost every major city. It’s pretty lame for you to ask who is responsible.” ” …
“This response was mind-blowing: “Need a living wage for our people and to get investors out of housing.” ” …
(More on housing costs tonight in next Talk About Politics)
“It’s the “these are not the legislators you were looking for” Jedi mind trick from the super-duper majority party & their enablers as they ignore facts, displace blame & project their incompetence upon others who really haven’t had any legislative leverage on housing for 60 yrs.” …
“This photo is explained by the Martin v. Boise decision and Prop 47.
Both must be corrected to seriously address homelessness.”
CA globe https://tinyurl.com/mptu3dud
Another spot on piece by Katy Grimes
Martin v. Boise decision https://tinyurl.com/2p89w2jc
Daily Mail dot com
‘Venice’s world-famous beach and boardwalk have been ‘crippled’ by HUGE increase in robberies and a homeless camp has resulted in spikes in shootings, arson and even DOG attacks, say locals’
daily mail https://tinyurl.com/2aks4txt
‘It’s become an outdoor psychiatric ward!’ How California’s scenic Venice Beach has become a homeless hotspot with tent cities, violent crime and rampant drug use pushing families and tourists out’ …
“… syringes — one with a needle still attached — nestling in the sand in a children’s play area”
daily mail https://tinyurl.com/t6unecxv
After much media attention and resident complaints action was finally taken.
‘Skeletal remains are found by LA cops clearing Venice Beach homeless camp …’
daily mail https://tinyurl.com/yh2wjhw9
Enabling is little more than assisting in a slow form of suicide.
in SF,
“A self-proclaimed’ old-school junkie’ who moved from Texas to San Francisco because ‘it’s f*****g easy’ to be homeless there claims he’s being paid by the city government to live on the streets, getting $620 in cash per month and hundreds of food stamps while he sells Narcan and enjoys Amazon Prime and Netflix on his phone.
‘This right now is literally by choice, literally by choice. If we’re going to be realistic, they pay you to be homeless here,’ James, a homeless man with face tattoos who has been living in San Francisco since June,…”
dailymail https://tinyurl.com/yeyrtjn9
Could this work ? ?
YES, chemically dependent people need to hit a bottom, then decide they’re sick and tired of being sick and tired and want to change.
Care Court is not a complete fix for horrendous damage done to society, when DEM controlled state legislature destroyed the proven method Superior Court Judges had to force people into sobriety, when AB109 was passed in 2011.
June 30, 2004, then mayor newsom stated, in 10 years the worst of San Francisco’s homeless problem would be gone.
‘Poll: More than half of California voters say Gov. Newsom is responding poorly to homelessness’
ktla75 https://tinyurl.com/yckrk2ch
Greatest motivators of politicians, polls, fear of reelection defeat, public ridicule and embarrassment.
Panic attempt at an election year fix.
They have until 31 August to write and pass a bill.
Unlikely voters will be able to see any benefit to society before elections.
IF it is a failure we won’t know until 2023 . . . isn’t that convenient ? ? ?
It’s almost like, . . . they planned it that way.
You lock them up. Let they dry out and send them to rehab. The mentally ill go to hospitals for treatment.
Maybe, they plan on putting the homeless in a house that is run like Dorothea Puente, a convicted criminal on parole, who eased by the State, not living but several miles from the-capital and who killed homeless (buried the corpses in her backyard) men and women with mental issues while collecting their SSI checks. This could happen again …look how well the EDD did by giving Unemployment checks to prisoners in jail and people living out of state. You are only good as your people…Newsom!
This is actually big news for a Democrat “liberal” to go hard on the homeless finally. In my opinion the biggest issue in concord. They break windows of businesses, steal, do drugs, litter, and pollute. Most democrats want to give them money and free housing and cops don’t want to jail them. Finally someone taking them off the streets. Just need to keep it regulated so we don’t have to send in Geraldo under bad sanitarium conditions again.
It’s up to you to stay clean. Some can do it some can’t. More work is needed on drugs on the streets.
I hope this court system adopts a picture of a kangaroo as their logo as it appears this proposed system is mainly to to “compel treatment for mentally ill people who may not understand that they need it.”
I assume this means that anti-vaxers and anti-maskers will be getting rounded up for treatment.
Constitutional rights don’t matter when there’s money to me made. The private sector prison system must be salivating.
This really is spooky. People deemed to be discussing “misinformation” (Newsom code for the truth) could be silently absorbed and disappear into this quagmire. That Orwell was a visionary…….
Here’s the best solution I’ve seen:
https://youtu.be/bpAi70WWBlw
THANK GOD. I’m always so freaked out about what behavior or who I’m going to encounter when out and about and now there will be help available.
Not good. So a family member can go to the courts and say Johnny can’t take care of himself and they will go round him up and force , it WILL be forced, a “treatment plan” including drugs , if a judge says so. Anybody else see where this is going? And as usual Newscum forcing compliance by the counties or else! Comrade Newscum did not legally beat that recall. Fraud at it’s finest!
Here we go again with Ghaly showing he has NO idea about medical care and Newsom parroting whatever he tells him. There is hundreds of years of data on obligatory mental healthcare. It is never net effective, creates a decrease in the individuals likelihood disengage even from voluntary care, and is often used as a tool to strip the severely mentally ill of liberty. This was shown when Reagan advanced the community mental health plan that did not work. Prior to that it was the mechanism of the long term state hospital model. Didn’t work. Prior to that it was the asylums designed to prevent people from breeding. Man the Democrats haven’t met a problem they aren’t willing to throw a mandate that violates human rights. They are platforming themselves out of politics.
funny how this always happens just before an election??? we will see???