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San Francisco to Implement Newsom’s CARE Courtroom Plan to Deal with Extreme Psychological Sickness

Proponents argue that a treatment plan developed by the CARE Court will be less restrictive than alternatives such as state hospitalization or conservatory.

To qualify, an individual must be at least 18 years of age, diagnosed with schizophrenia or another psychotic disorder, deemed likely to benefit from a supervised treatment plan, and determined to be at risk to harm yourself or others.

A recent analysis by the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative at UCSF and the California Policy Lab found that more than 760 people in San Francisco may be eligible for a CARE court referral, based on data from hospital emergency departments and the criminal justice system , if the The program starts in October. Some experts reckon the figure may be more than 1,000.

Ensuring that counties have sufficient funds to operate the new CARE courts is a concern, and that’s a concern shared by both critics and supporters. Agencies involved in the implementation of the CARE Court include the Superior Court, the Department of Public Health, the Human Services Agency, the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, the Attorney General’s Office and the Public Defender’s Office.

San Francisco District Attorney David Chiu said each participant must go through five court hearings before a treatment plan is approved. However, the state has not provided any additional funds for this, he said.

“In addition to the work that our office will do, there is, for example, the work of public defenders and other attorneys, the work of the court itself.” And all of these actors will need additional resources,” Chiu said.

And once someone creates a treatment plan, it’s not clear the city’s existing facilities will be able to accommodate new patients, said Charlie Berman, a San Francisco social worker. For the past decade, Berman has worked on the streets of San Francisco with people living with serious mental illnesses—the very audience CARE Court is targeting.

“I don’t think CARE Court is really going to do much more than the existing programs that we have because those existing programs aren’t really able to do their job as well as they should anyway because of the lack of capacity,” he said he . “And that means so many people cycling in and out [psychiatric] The ER is not hospitalized because half the people in SF General [Hospital] waiting for their placement.”

Director Hillary Ronen is frustrated and concerned that CARE courts will simply divert their attention and funding from other programs aimed at helping the city’s homeless population, including those with serious mental illnesses.

“It’s not the design of the CARE Court that I have a problem with,” she said. “It’s the constant distraction from attention and strategy and the inability to just stick with a strategy and execute it.”

Ronen added, “Overall, moving away from everything we’ve already done in San Francisco to implementing CARE Court is a net negative for the city.”

Breed – who can ultimately be held responsible for the success or failure of the program – dismisses these concerns.

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