California Disability Advocates Sue To Stop CARE Court Program Plan For Involuntary Outpatient Treatment For Psychosis

On January 26, 2023, a group of disability advocacy organizations filed a challenge to the constitutional validity of the California Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Act provision for involuntary outpatient treatment for people with mental illness. The CARE Act was enacted in 2022. It establishes a new civil court process that allows the state to provide community-based behavioral health services and supports to people with untreated psychotic disorders. These services are intended to be an upstream intervention for the most severely impaired people to prevent avoidable psychiatric hospitalizations, incarceration, or mental health conservatorship.
The new civil court process . . .