Two Years In, Riverside's CARE Court Reaches 260 Residents

Two years after Riverside County launched CARE Court – a state program offering an alternative to homelessness and incarceration for those with severe mental health issues – program leaders reviewed how it is serving the community at a roundtable event on Tuesday morning.

CARE Court is a voluntary program that enables a range of people – families, clinicians, first responders, or the individuals themselves – to refer those suffering from schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders to specialized treatment plans and care teams.

As of February, 11 people have graduated from Riverside County's CARE program, meaning those individuals completed their treatment plans and achieved stability, according to a spokesperson with the Riverside University Health System.

A total of 260 CARE Court petitions have been filed with Riverside County, with 57 individuals on active CARE Court plans and 111 petitions currently active in the process.

CARE Court was championed by Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson, who worked to have Riverside County among the first of seven counties to launch the program in October 2023 after it was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2022.

The program is now implemented in every county across California and has reached nearly 8,000 people across the state.

However, CalHHS Deputy Secretary Stephanie Welch, who hosted Tuesday's roundtable, said counties throughout California implement the program very differently.

Welch said she is traveling across the state to hear about how the different counties are implementing CARE Court and to discuss best practices.

"The variation in how CARE Court has been implemented across the state with 39 million people is substantial, so we're really on a mission to try to better understand why that is and make sure that we are supporting counties to share best practices," she said.

Welch also noted her excitement to see Riverside County's expanded local access to mental health and substance use care with the opening of an 18-acre Wellness Village in Mead Valley, set to open this year.

At the roundtable, Riverside County's CARE team leaders said they believe that the program is successful because it takes a personal approach, allowing team members to form relationships with the individuals.

Once placed on a CARE plan after a mental health evaluation, the individual works with a team of clinicians, case managers and housing specialists on a plan for recovery tailored to their needs and coordinated by the court.

The plan aims to help individuals toward long-term stabilization and prevent cycles of hospitalization, homelessness and incarceration.

Sanie Andres, the program administrator at a 30-bed mental health rehabilitation center in Riverside – called the Restorative Transformation Center – said that this approach with CARE Court helps take away the fear and stigma that comes with getting mental health treatment.

"CARE…allows participants to have a voice and move toward partnership and collaboration with the CARE team, rather than 'am I going to get in trouble? What's the consequence going to be?' " Andres said.

The CARE Court program emphasizes voluntary engagement, encouraging individuals to participate in their recovery plans. While the court can order an individual a structured CARE plan – and has the authority to modify the plan, increase oversight or extend services – the goal is to foster voluntary cooperation.

Riverside Superior Court Judge Magdalena Cohen said this approach gives individuals more autonomy.

"People buy into their care [and] attend their groups…I think there is a higher level of humanizing," Cohen said.

Riverside County Deputy Public Defender Starla Anderson, who works with individuals placed on CARE plans, said one of the biggest challenges is getting an individual to agree to a CARE plan.

However, Anderson said she seeks to get individuals invested in the program by finding out what genuinely motivates them.

"It's just about finding out…what they want to change in their life, and doing our best to either do it ourselves or find another community partner that can do that for them – whether it's housing, job assistance, family reunification or even a criminal matter that they want resolved. We help them to do that in order to help fix their home," she said.

Anderson also shared a recent story of one of the CARE program's graduates.

The individual, who was homeless and addicted to substances for years, got into a residential treatment program through her CARE team three times – but failed to remain in treatment twice, according to Anderson.

Eventually, however, the treatment stuck and she graduated successfully from the program.

"Today I called her, six months after she graduated from the program, and we were having a great conversation – then she said, 'I have to go because my grandkids are coming home soon,'" Anderson said.

"When she was on the streets, her biggest desire was to reunite with her children and to get to know her grandkids," she said. "Then, here she is, six months post-graduation, to say that instead of sleeping on the streets, she was having a sleepover with her family. That's huge."

"And she told me, 'thank you for not giving up on me,' " Anderson said.

By Micaela Ricaforte