The deadline for Sonoma County to implement a state-mandated program to help people with serious mental illnesses, including untreated schizophrenia, is fast approaching, but the plan must first be submitted to the supervisory board.

On Tuesday, the board will be asked to allocate $282,613 to cover staffing positions and overhead costs associated with implementing the new program, called Court of CARE.

The Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment (CARE) court program is designed as a non-criminal process in which certain people, including family members and first responders, can petition a civil court treatment, services, and housing resources for people with untreated schizophrenia and other psychotics. troubles.

The process would begin with the petition and include a clinical assessment to determine eligibility, followed by the creation of a care plan – if the person is eligible – which may include recommended treatment, medications and housing. The person’s participation in the plan and the county’s delivery of services would then be monitored for a year through court hearings.

Sonoma is among the latest wave of counties in the state to launch the program, which was led in 2022 by Governor Gavin Newsom to address issues related to homelessness, incarceration, and substance abuse.

Sonoma County officials responsible for implementing the program have been meeting since Jan. 25 to prepare.

“Over the past several months, this team has met regularly and dedicated their time to learning about our various roles for CARE Court, developing key workflows between the department and programs, and troubleshooting issues for prepare for launch,” David Evans, acute manager and head of the county health department’s forensic section, said in an email.

The Department of Health Services is asking the board Tuesday to approve the hiring of a full-time behavioral health clinician specialist and a full-time senior customer support specialist for the program. The positions would be time-limited and expire in 2027.

The requested $244,280 is expected to cover salaries for those positions as well as other costs, including hiring incentives and office equipment, according to a staff report. If the board approves the request Tuesday, health department officials will proceed with recruiting and hiring for those positions, Evans said.

The CARE Court bill was signed into law in September 2022. Since then, eight counties – Glenn, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Los Angeles – have implemented CARE Court, according to the California Association of Counties website.

Sonoma and Napa counties are part of the larger group of 50 counties where the project will next be rolled out. CARE Court is scheduled to launch in Sonoma County on December 1.

County officials aren’t sure how much demand they’ll see once it launches, but volume was lower than expected in counties where CARE Court is already operationalaccording to the staff report.

As of Oct. 1, 715 petitions had been filed with the CARE court in the first seven counties that implemented the program, according to the county staff report. Los Angeles County received 155 petitions in the first six months after launching in December 2023, significantly lower than the 1,900 petitions expected.

Sonoma County could see as many as 40 CARE court petitions in the first year, based on eligible Lanterman-Petris-Short (LPS) guardianships and misdemeanor cases in which defendants are found incompetent to stand trial.

The state’s staggered launch of the program was intended to ease the transition and address unknowns about how counties would roll out the program. Statewide discussions leading up to the bill’s passage in 2022 had raised questions about whether counties had the resources to implement the CARE Court.

The program sets out seven criteria to determine whether a person is eligible for CARE Court, including: being 18 years of age and older with a diagnosis of schizophrenia spectrum or other psychotic disorders; the person is not clinically stabilized within the framework of continuous and voluntary treatment; and the person is unlikely to be able to care for themselves safely and independently.

The program requires coordination among several county departments, including the health and human services departments, the sheriff’s office and the public defender’s office, as well as the information systems department and the county council, the program says. service report.

Health department officials could not respond by Monday’s deadline to questions about whether the county would have to cover other program costs beyond the requested $282,613.

You can reach staff writer Emma Murphy at 707-521-5228 or [email protected]. On Twitter @MurphReports.