Mental health care opposition mounts

Gov. Gavin Newsom backs a sweeping proposal to overhaul California's mental health care system and end homelessness for the sickest people living on our streets. But his plan to make treatment mandatory is facing pushback from opponents who argue it's an inhumane and ineffective solution that will do little to solve the state's homelessness crisis.

Senate Bill 1338, dubbed Community Assistance, Recovery & Empowerment (CARE) Court, would allow California courts to order people with severe, untreated schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders to submit to a care plan. The goal is to help people who can't help themselves — people wandering in traffic, shouting at no one and bouncing between hospitals, jail and the streets.

The proposal comes at a time when Californians increasingly are fed up with the state's wide-spread homelessness, and Newsom has prioritized eliminating encampments. But in a system where nearly all available mental health services are voluntary, CARE Court raises a controversial ethical question: Should society force treatment on people who are too sick to realize they need help?

Opponents say coerced treatment is unjust and less effective than building trust with someone and convincing them to get help. Court should be a last resort, said Kim Pederson, a senior attorney with Disability Rights California, one of dozens of agencies opposing the idea.

“I can tell you that these folks that the state wants to serve via the CARE Court process have a lot of trauma around courts,” she said, “and do not see courts as a place where they can get help.”

Supporters argue some people will never accept desperately needed assistance without a court's intervention.

“The alternative is to say, `You know what, I'm going to let you live under a bridge because I want to respect your autonomy,'” said the bill's co-author, Sen. Thomas Umberg, D-Santa Ana. “I'm going to let you languish under a bridge in your own feces and I hope you make the right decisions.”