report<\/a> for SB 1016 indicates, a range of organizations, including the County Behavioral Health Directors Association, opposed the bill. They argued that there are already systems in place to make sure that those suffering severe mental illnesses are brought in for treatment.<\/p>\n\u201cThe opponents assert counties have stood up a statewide network of 24\/7 community-based mobile crisis teams to help immediately respond and de-escalate behavioral health crises and connect individuals to services,\u201d the analysts\u2019 report states.<\/p>\n
![\"Sen.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/SUT-l-SB1016-01.jpg\")
Sen. Catherine Blakespear, D-Encinitas, testifies on her bill, SB 1016, before the California Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Apr. 21, 2026.<\/p>\n
But many say that these responses, and law enforcement-led responses when subjects are violent, are not resulting in long-term treatment for residents who do not realize they are ill.<\/p>\n
CARE Court applies only to those with severe mental illness such as schizophrenia and intervening with this group has been an ongoing source of friction since the CARE Act first arrived in 2023. Advocates have long been very uncomfortable with a possible erosion in civil rights that could occur if the program included a route to involuntary treatment.<\/p>\n
Politicians find themselves under ever-increasing pressure from their constituents to do more when they witness their fellow citizens struggling and gradually deteriorating on city streets.<\/p>\n
Blakespear, D-Encinitas, said she believes SB 989 will make it more efficient for first responders to get help for people they encounter regularly with serious mental health problems.<\/p>\n
Assertions from behavioral health organizations that the current system is adequately assessing and treating everyone who needs intervention, even if it is involuntary, do not pass the eye test, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was presenting the bill at committee, there were so many questions around making sure people\u2019s human rights are protected,\u201d Blakespear said. \u201cBut we\u2019re trying to solve a problem where people with severe mental illness are living without help or intervention on the streets, and they\u2019re just essentially dying in front of us as we talk about protecting their human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
SB 1016\u2019s failure to launch notwithstanding, the senator said she intends to continue pursuing an involuntary treatment solution for situations where no amount of voluntary help is accepted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to solve for helping people who are so sick that they can\u2019t identify that they even need help,\u201d Blakespear said. \u201cI think of people who are suffering like that as being the most severely disinvested group in our society.\u201d<\/p>\n
And it is clear that while the professionals who run behavioral health systems across the state clearly feel that the existing approach is best, a constellation of fed-up community members shows that the pressure to intervene will only increase.<\/p>\n
Chris Cott of La Jolla has been active for years in reporting situations involving unhoused residents, many suffering from obvious mental illnesses. A recent encounter a few weeks ago, he said, involved a man who poured Gatorade inside Cott\u2019s vehicle.<\/p>\n
His work as a muralist and part-time home remodeler, he said, keeps him circulating through neighborhoods, and there is a group with clear mental illness that has remained on the streets for years despite constant reports to authorities from community members.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are probably three to four in La Jolla and five to six in Pacific Beach \u2026 very rarely have I seen one get better,\u201d Cott said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a slow, painful decline and, you know, you literally see them pulling the lid off a trash can and taking something out and eating it or drinking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heather Newhart is an outreach worker and substance abuse counselor who rents rooms to people struggling with addiction and mental illness with nowhere else to go. She said she knows where to find those who have been on the streets for years without ever getting\u00a0effective treatment.<\/p>\n
While she said she does have concerns that involuntary treatment could be abused and used as a means to simply sweep away a problem that many just don\u2019t want to see, she said there are some cases where involuntary intervention appears to be the best option.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have some clients that I have to make sure that they eat; they wouldn\u2019t be able to come by my house or come to any of the programs that I would try to refer them to,\u201d Newhart said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been so far gone for so long.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut my question is always the same: Where the hell are you going to put them all? You can take them in on a 5150, or they can go through CARE Court, but where are they going to reside?\u201d<\/p>\n
Involuntary 5150 holds occur when a first responder believes that a person may be a danger to themselves or others or gravely disabled.<\/p>\n
CARE Court does make housing part of the comprehensive suite of resources offered to those who participate. However, the process is voluntary, and some who do not believe they are ill may decline.<\/p>\n
And, filing petitions requires an investment in filing paperwork and time to testify.<\/p>\n
Will the new law created by SB 989 result in more petitions being filed in San Diego?<\/p>\n
A statement from the San Diego Police Department indicates that while it supports the new law, it \u201cwon\u2019t drastically change how the San Diego Police Department operates with regard to individuals who may need the Care Court System.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSDPD already has an established Intervention Services Team that is dedicated to addressing the most complex cases involving substance or mental health issues among individuals experiencing homelessness that require additional time and resources to find solutions that meet each person\u2019s needs,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
This team, the police department, and the city fire department\u2019s Resource Access Program work with homeless outreach teams \u201cto identify and assist those who may need a higher level of intervention,\u201d the statement adds.<\/p>\n
Some, though, say there is room for improvement.<\/p>\n
Dr. Aaron Meyer, a UC San Diego psychiatrist who has advocated forcefully for strengthening the response in cases of severe mental illness, said he believes SB 989 can streamline the petition process.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst responders are often encountering people with severe mental illness at moments of significant crisis, yet the state\u2019s own data show that the petitions from first responders, mobile crisis teams and outreach workers were the least likely to result in a CARE agreement or plan, and more than half ended with the person receiving no county behavioral health services,\u201d Meyer said. \u201cStrengthening that connection gives county behavioral health an earlier opportunity to assess what someone actually needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd when CARE is not the right pathway, that connection should help lead the person to the level of care that is.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement, the county behavioral health department said that changes introduced in a previous piece of legislation, Senate Bill 42, already allow jails and hospitals to refer potential CARE Court\u00a0cases to the county rather than having to file a formal petition.<\/p>\n
While a form is being prepared that first responders can fill out to quickly make such referrals, the county said that it anticipates some issues, including locating individuals who may move after referral and have no address or other reliable means of contact. And, the county notes, referrals from first responders will not come with diagnostic information on whether an individual qualifies for the CARE process.<\/p>\n
Investigating a flood of referrals from first responders, the county said, could \u201ccreate a potential substantial increase in referrals, impacting caseloads, reducing the amount of time current clinicians could spend per client.\u201d<\/p>\n
San Diego has been the most successful county in the state, with the state Department of Health Care Services calling it an \u201cexemplar\u201d in some communications CARE Act materials. According to the behavioral health department, a total of 643 petitions have been filed, with 217 individuals signing CARE agreements to receive services voluntarily and 55 graduates from the program.<\/p>\n
However, 374 petitions have been dismissed, with 102 refusing to participate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fate of two bills introduced this legislative session by state Sen. Catherine Blakespear reveals California\u2019s ongoing divide…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":872028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[2356,97,983,259,260,3,7156,2557],"class_list":["post-872027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-california","tag-health","tag-local-news","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-news","tag-san-diego-county","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}