Mental health services: assisted outpatient treatment.

The Assisted Outpatient Treatment Demonstration Project Act of 2002, known as Laura's Law, commencing January 1, 2022, requires each county to offer specified mental health programs, unless a county or group of counties opts out by a resolution passed by the governing body, as specified. Existing law authorizes participating counties to pay for the services provided from moneys distributed to the counties from various continuously appropriated funds, including the Mental Health Services Fund, when included in a county plan, as specified. Existing law authorizes a court in a participating county to order a person who is suffering from mental illness and is the subject of a petition to obtain assisted outpatient treatment if the court makes various findings including, among others, there has been a clinical determination that the person is unlikely to survive safely in the community without supervision, the person's condition is substantially deteriorating, and, in view of the person's treatment history and current behavior, the person is in need of assisted outpatient treatment in order to prevent a relapse or deterioration that would be likely to result in grave disability or serious harm to the person or to others. Existing law requires the petition to be accompanied by an affidavit of a licensed mental health treatment provider. Existing law authorizes the petition to be filed by the county behavioral health director, or the director's designee, in the superior court in the county in which the person who is the subject of the petition is present or reasonably believed to be present, in accordance with prescribed procedures. This bill would, among other things, instead require that the above-described findings include a clinical determination that the person is unlikely to survive safely in the community without supervision and that the person's condition is substantially deteriorating, or that assisted outpatient treatment is needed to prevent a relapse or deterioration that would be likely to result in grave disability or serious harm to the person or to others. This bill would allow the subject of the petition or the examining mental health professional to appear before the court for testimony by videoconferencing, as specified. The bill would additionally authorize the filing of a petition to obtain assisted outpatient treatment under the existing petition procedures for a person if the court makes a prescribed determination, including that the person is an eligible conservatee, as defined.