SB 232

Bill Subjects

Mental Health Services Gravely Disabled

Abstract

Existing law, the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, provides for the involuntary commitment and treatment of a person who is a danger to themselves or others or who is gravely disabled. The act also provides for a conservator of the person or estate to be appointed for a person who is gravely disabled. Other existing law exempts specified licensed general acute care hospitals, licensed acute psychiatric hospitals, licensed professional staff of those hospitals, or a physician and surgeon, providing emergency medical services in any department of those hospitals, from civil or criminal liability for detaining a person if certain conditions exist, including that the person cannot be safely released from the hospital because the person, as a result of a mental health disorder, presents a danger to themselves or others or is gravely disabled. Existing law, for the purposes of these provisions, defines "gravely disabled," among other things, as a condition in which a person, as a result of a mental health disorder, is unable to provide for the basic personal needs of food, clothing, or shelter. This bill would change the definition of "gravely disabled" for these purposes to read, in part, a condition in which a person, as a result of a mental health disorder, is incapable of making informed decisions about, or providing for, their own basic personal needs for food, clothing, shelter, or medical care without significant supervision and assistance from another person and, as a result of being incapable of making these informed decisions, the person is at risk of substantial bodily harm, dangerous worsening of a concomitant serious physical illness, significant psychiatric deterioration, or mismanagement of essential needs that could result in bodily harm. The bill would also define "gravely disabled" for purposes of the act to mean a condition in which a person has an incapacity to provide informed consent to treatment due to anosognosia. By increasing the level of service required of county mental health departments, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.