More than a year after Santa Clara County launched a new state-mandated program to treat people with severe mental illness, families claim the system has failed to help them.
When CARE Court was first proposed, Gov. Gavin Newsom heralded it as the solution to treat thousands struggling from a serious mental illness through involuntary treatment. Families breathed a sigh of relief knowing their adult children had a way to become mentally stabilized after years of struggling with a broken health care system. But the bill was changed to favor voluntary treatment and their hopes were dashed.
“I was very angry with the Legislature, with Gov. Newsom for not having the foresight to see basic assumptions that people are going to want treatment (is) not reality,” a father who put his son through the CARE Court system in San Mateo County, told San Jose Spotlight on condition of anonymity. “The biggest problem is there is no teeth in CARE Court. It’s not everyone’s right to die on the street, and that’s very well what might happen to my son.”…