Conservatorships: serious mental illness and substance use disorders: counties.

Existing law establishes a procedure for the appointment of a conservator for a person who is determined to be gravely disabled as a result of a mental health disorder or an impairment by chronic alcoholism, as specified, pursuant to a petition to the superior court by an officer conducting an investigation and concurring with a recommendation of conservatorship. Existing law also establishes a procedure for the appointment of other types of conservatorship or a guardianship as ordered by the probate court. Existing law, the Assisted Outpatient Treatment Demonstration Project Act of 2002, known as Laura's Law, until January 1, 2022, grants each county the authority to offer certain assisted outpatient treatment services for a person who meets specified criteria, including, among others, that the person is suffering from a mental illness, that the person has a history of lack of compliance with treatment for the person's mental illness, and that the person is in need of assisted outpatient treatment, as specified. Laura's Law authorizes designated persons to request the county behavioral health director to file a petition in the superior court for an order for assisted outpatient treatment. Existing law, until January 1, 2024, establishes a procedure, for the County of Los Angeles, the County of San Diego, and the City and County of San Francisco, if the board of supervisors of the respective county or city and county authorizes the application of these provisions subject to specified requirements, for the appointment of a conservator for a person who is incapable of caring for the person's own health and well-being due to a serious mental illness and substance use disorder, as specified, for the purpose of providing the least restrictive and most clinically appropriate alternative needed for the protection of the person. Existing law prohibits a conservatorship from being established under these provisions if a conservatorship or guardianship exists under any of the other above-described provisions. Existing law authorizes the Judicial Council to adopt rules, forms, and standards necessary to implement these provisions. This bill would authorize any county or city and county to adopt these conservatorship provisions within their jurisdictions.