Why California's much-touted CARE Court is 'no one-and-done program'
LOS ANGELES — When Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the CARE Act into law in September, he set the clock on seven counties to have the program with its signature courts up and running by Oct. 1, 2023.
The graduated rollout gives the rest of the state, including Los Angeles County, until December 2024, but the Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment Act has already been hailed as a fix for the state's broken behavioral health system, a road to recovery for those who are severely mentally ill.
Three months into implementing its provisions, however, mental health directors advise against setting expectations too high. They point to the logistical and financial challenges of launching a labor-intensive program from scratch, as well as the limiting effect of a decades-old law already on the books governing the treatment of mentally ill people in California.
"The language attending the rollout of this has been heady and leaned into phrases like 'transformative,'" said Luke Bergmann, director of behavioral health services for San Diego County, which is working to meet the deadline. "But the changes will likely be incremental."
Veronica Kelley, behavioral health director for Orange County, which has also been
