Los Angeles County will be able to observe in San Diego the initial results of a state program aimed at helping thousands of homeless people with mental illnesses.
This Friday, San Diego started out as a volunteer for Governor Gavin Newsom’s Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment (CARE) Court program. The full name is Court Care.
This is an unprecedented program in the country; it is the first process in the nation to provide critical services to vulnerable people living on the streets, suffering from schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, and who have previously had no care.
Through the Court Care program, a court orders in each county which people should be supported with plans that last up to 000 months, with option expanding, targeting people on the schizophrenia spectrum or with other psychotic disorders.
While it is unknown how many people it could help in San Diego County where it will begin in 2023 As a pilot project, in Los Angeles it is anticipated to benefit thousands of homeless people.
Connie Draxler, the acting deputy director of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, said that in the entire state it is estimated that there are between 7,000 and 000,000 eligible indigent persons, and of them between 2,500 and 4,000 Potential entrants in Los Angeles County.
However, he said there may be cases where family members of eligible individuals report to the courts, which would increase the number of beneficiaries.
For Governor Newsom, it is a plan that, in addition to ordering that help be offered to thousands of vulnerable Californians, who until now lack help and live on the streets, is a project that is based “on respect for their rights”.
A count taken last September determined that more than 160,000 people stay on the streets at night in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, it is the largest population of homeless people in the state of California, although the survey did not determine the number of people with problems mental health.
California is the state with the most people living on the streets, more than 160,000, according to statistics from World Population Rev iew or world population review.
The president of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, Nathan Fletcher, explained that the first step will be to make an inventory of the resources available to the county to provide help that is really effective.
“We have a critical shortage of mental health and drug treatment staff, and now we are working to hire more people, recruit more staff, train more people ”, he said.
At least by volunteering the county to test the program, authorities in San Diego discovered that “one of the The biggest limiting factors at this time is just the availability of services.”
It also limits that for the first time they will have to identify and locate people who can benefit from Court Care.
The authorities hope that first responders or paramedics who care for vulnerable homeless people, the relatives of those pe Persons or medical personnel who care for them could direct homeless people to the program.
With this transfer, a Court of Attention, and a judge of a civil court would establish a course of treatment, including medication, support services, and a housing plan.
The county received concerns from groups that help the homeless that the bill would impose treatment on people who need it.
Her supervisor said that Care Court focuses on those who are more seriously ill and need help.
“At the end of the day, when someone is lying in the street, clearly suffering with their own feces, clearly incapable of taking care of themselves, I don’t think it’s compassionate or humanitarian to leave them in that condition”, he reflected.
He said that in those cases “we have to find some way to provide them with help. After they have help, when they have a clear mind, those people will be able to make decisions in terms of what they want to do”, but first they need help.
The program will also be piloted in the counties of Orange and San Francisco, According to the state of California, after a preparatory phase in which details are refined, it is expected to be officially launched at the state level in October, although Supervisor Fletcher said he expects it to start in San Diego in the summer .