Supervisors Direct County Staff to Prepare for CARE Court Launch

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors June 6 voted to direct staff to prepare for the launch of CARE Court on Dec. 1. CARE Court, a new initiative, aims to fix the ongoing challenge of getting people with severe mental illness the support and care they need.

CARE Court will provide upstream treatment opportunities to individuals suffering from severe mental health disorders, especially schizophrenia spectrum and psychotic disorders, and who are unable to make their own medical decisions by authorizing specific people, like family members, to petition a civil court to create a CARE plan for that individual.

The board passed a motion June 6, authored by Hahn and Barger, directing the LA County Department of Mental Health to recruit and hire new employees to support the CARE Court program and use the board’s emergency authority under the recently declared Homelessness Emergency to expedite hiring. The motion also directs county staff to identify potential properties and facilities that are needed to support CARE Court, to develop a referral system to connect CARE Court clients with substance use treatment, to implement a peer supporter program for CARE Court participants, and to report back in 90 days with progress made towards CARE Court implementation.

Under SB 1338, every county in the state must implement CARE Court. The County of Los Angeles will be part of the first group of California counties to implement CARE Court starting with one courtroom and one judge in the LA County Superior Court Courthouse in Norwalk.

Gov. Newsom’s May revision to the state budget proposes to allocate $15 million to Los Angeles County to implement CARE Court. The revision also identified $151 million in ongoing funds to support CARE Courts statewide although LA County’s allocation is unknown at this point.

This motion passed in a 4-1 vote with Supervisors Janice Hahn, Kathryn Barger, Hilda Solis, and Holly Mitchell voting for the motion and Supervisor Lindsey Horvath voting against it.