(a) A system of care for adults and older adults with severe mental illness results in the highest benefit to the client, family, and community while ensuring that the public sector meets its legal responsibility and fiscal liability at the lowest possible cost.
(b) The underlying philosophy for these systems of care includes the following:
(1) Mental health care is a basic human service.
(2) Adults and older adults with a serious mental health condition are citizens of a community with all the rights, privileges, opportunities, and responsibilities accorded other citizens.
(3) Adults and older adults with a serious mental health condition usually have multiple disabling conditions and should have the highest priority among adults for mental health services.
(4) Adults and older adults with a serious mental health condition should have an interagency network of services with multiple points of access and be assigned a single person or team to be responsible for all treatment, case management, and community support services.
(5) The client should be fully informed and volunteer for all treatment provided, unless danger to self or others or grave disability requires temporary involuntary treatment, or the client is under a court order for assisted outpatient treatment pursuant to Section 5346 and, prior to the filing of the petition for assisted outpatient treatment pursuant to Section 5346, the client has been offered an opportunity to participate in treatment on a voluntary basis and has failed to engage in that treatment, or the client is under a court order for CARE pursuant to Part 8 (commencing with Section 5970) and, prior to the court-ordered CARE plan, the client has been offered an opportunity to enter into a CARE agreement on a voluntary basis and has declined to do so.
(6) Clients and families should directly participate in making decisions about services and resource allocations that affect their lives.
(7) People in local communities are the most knowledgeable regarding their particular environments, issues, service gaps and strengths, and opportunities.
(8) Mental health services should be responsive to the unique characteristics of people with a mental health condition, including age, gender, minority and ethnic status, and the effect of multiple conditions.
(9) For the majority of adults and older adults with a serious mental health condition, treatment is best provided in the client’s natural setting in the community. Treatment, case management, and community support services should be designed to prevent inappropriate removal from the natural environment to more restrictive and costly placements.
(10) Mental health systems of care shall have measurable goals and be fully accountable by providing measures of client outcomes and cost of services.
(11) State and county government agencies each have responsibilities and fiscal liabilities for adults and older adults with a serious mental health condition.
(Amended by Stats. 2024, Ch. 948, Sec. 42. (AB 2119) Effective January 1, 2025.)