California's Plan to Assist Those with Severe Mental Health Illnesses
California is launching a statewide experiment to help people suffering from untreated severe mental illness. The Care Courts plan is part of the state Care Act, which passed the California legislature last Fall and signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The plan aims to give people suffering from untreated severe mental illness access to mental health and other treatment and support under a two-year "Care Plan" that counties' behavioral health systems have to fund. The rollout is being met with genuine optimism from some families, but it's also meeting fierce opposition from some advocates who say the plan is coercive, dangerous and unconstitutionally vague.