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June Dudas maintains printouts of emails she has sent to numerous offices and agencies regarding her cousin, Ed, and the physical threat he poses to his mother, June\u2019s aunt. (Nelvin C. Cepeda \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\nA little-known state law is getting new attention as families and advocates for people with serious mental illness look for more ways to reach those who refuse help.<\/p>\n
For June Dudas, the issue took on new urgency last week.<\/p>\n
Concerned that her cousin, Ed, was about to be discharged from jail, she emailed San Diego County officials, asking them to pursue a court-ordered mental health evaluation that she hoped would get Ed the services he needs.<\/p>\n
June Dudas maintains printouts of emails she has sent to numerous offices and agencies regarding her cousin, Ed, and the physical threat he poses to his mother, June\u2019s aunt. (Nelvin C. Cepeda \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
Otherwise, she feared, he would return to his mother\u2019s house in San Diego. In November, Ed, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia in his 20s and has spent much of the last 30 years in jail, prison or the state psychiatric hospital, was sentenced to 140 days in jail after a jury convicted him on multiple counts of violating a restraining order that forbids him from visiting her home.<\/p>\n
Ring video cameras had captured Ed returning 21 times to his mother\u2019s house over several months, and she lived in fear that he might break in.<\/p>\n
He had threatened her life in the past, at one point telling her, \u201cthe voices were telling me to kill you.\u201d The judge who sentenced Ed to jail agreed that he \u201cdoes present a danger\u201d to his mother\u2019s safety.<\/p>\n
The San Diego Union-Tribune detailed his family\u2019s struggles<\/a> in December 2025.<\/p>\n Section 5200 of California\u2019s Welfare and Institutions Code allows<\/a> \u201cany individual\u201d to request a comprehensive mental health evaluation of a person who is believed to be a danger to themselves or others, or is gravely disabled.<\/p>\n Counties are gatekeepers of the process, but Section 5200 is rarely, if ever, used \u2014 despite California\u2019s ongoing struggle to help people who refuse to engage in treatment and end up homeless, in jail or worse.<\/p>\n A recent report<\/a> by Quarter Turn Strategies, a Sacramento-based mental health care consulting firm with ties to San Diego, described 5200 as \u201c(t)he lost legal pathway to mental health care.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite being law since 1967, 5200 is \u201clargely unavailable in practice,\u201d the report says, and most counties lack \u201cwritten policies, procedures, or publicly accessible processes\u201d for handling petitions.<\/p>\n This gap has real consequences, the authors argue. The mental health system is largely crisis-driven, with interventions happening in response to an emergency need.<\/p>\n People with complex needs may stabilize briefly, only to return to crisis. Others, said Dr. Aaron Meyer, a San Diego psychiatrist and one of the report\u2019s authors, know how to \u201cpresent well\u201d during quick assessments, known as 5150 evaluations \u2014 they know the right things to say in the moment, even if they\u2019ve cycled through hospitals, jails and homelessness for years.<\/p>\n \u201cHe would say, \u2018I know where to get food, I know where to get shelter. I would never hurt anyone,\u2019\u201d Meyer said. \u201cThey can give a superficial plan for self care, but nobody digs any deeper and looks at are they actually following through with any of those statements.\u201d<\/p>\n Holds under 5150 can occur when a law enforcement officer or other first responder suspects someone is a danger to themselves or others, or is gravely disabled. They generally last for 72 hours and are intended to stabilize the individual before releasing them back into society.<\/p>\n
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Frustrated that the system doesn\u2019t work, June Dudas maintains a detailed binder full of handwritten notes, letters, and printouts of emails she has sent to numerous offices and agencies regarding her cousin, Ed, and the physical threat he poses to his mother, June\u2019s aunt. (Nelvin C. Cepeda \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n