<!-- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ --></p> <p>from <a href=""https://calmatters.org/author/julie-wernau/"" title=""Posts" by="" julie="" wernau="" class=""author" url="" fn="" rel=""author"">Julie Vernau</a> and <a href=""https://calmatters.org/author/dan-gorenstein/"" title=""Posts" by="" dan="" gorenstein="" class=""author" url="" fn="" rel=""author"">Dan Gorenstein</a>CalMatters</p> <figure> <img decoding="async" width=""1200"" height=""800"" src=""https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/120125_CARECourt_FM_38.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1"" class=""attachment-post-thumbnail" size-post-thumbnail="" wp-post-image="" alt=""Silhouette" of="" a="" person="" standing="" at="" railing="" looking="" out="" into="" bay="" with="" boats="" and="" the="" skyline="" buildings="" in="" background.="" run="" is="" shining="" down="" reflecting="" creating="" shadows="" on="" ships="" around="" frame.="" decoding=""async"" srcset=""https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/120125_CARECourt_FM_38.jpg?w=2000&ssl=1" https:="" sizes=""(max-width:"/><figcaption>CARE Court recipient in San Francisco on December 1, 2025. Photo by Florence Middleton for CalMatters/Catchlight</figcaption></figure> <p>This story was originally published by <a href=""https://calmatters.org/"">CalMatters</a>. <a href=""https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/"">Sign up</a> for their newsletters.</p> <p>How do you help a person who doesn’t want help? </p> <p>Families of people with serious mental illness, behavioral health experts and policymakers have been asking this question for years. People suffering from psychosis often struggle to meet basic needs such as food, shelter and hygiene. But their paranoia or delusions cause them to reject their loved ones and public support. <a href=""https://www.tac.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Anosognosia-Research-Summary.pdf"">About half of people with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders</a> don’t believe they are sick. </p> <p>Governor of California <a href=""https://calmatters.org/tag/gavin-newsom/"">Gavin Newsom</a> set out to solve this chronic challenge when he <a href=""https://calmatters.org/series/care-court-california-mental-health-treatment/"">introduced the CARE Court </a>in 2022 — an ambitious plan to introduce courts that could more easily take people with serious mental illnesses off the streets and force them into treatment.</p> <p>“This is critical help for exhausted and financially stressed families who are trying alone to help relatives stuck in dark, unimaginable pain,” he said in his <a href=""https://www.gov.ca.gov/2024/06/25/governor-newsom-delivers-2024-state-of-the-state-address/"">2024 Government address status</a>.</p> <p>Many families – desperate after watching their loved ones go through prison and homelessness for years – welcomed the new initiative. But advocates and some behavioral health experts said forcing someone into treatment is a step too far. </p> <p>A little more than two years into the program, CalMatters collected <a href=""https://calmatters.org/series/care-court-california-mental-health-treatment/"">the most comprehensive view yet</a> in the statewide CARE court. This series is a partnership with the Visual Storytelling Organization <a href=""https://www.catchlight.io/"">Light</a>includes first-hand accounts from family members, many of whom initially supported the CARE Court but then turned against it. It also features interviews with first responders, policy makers and mental health advocates. </p> <p>Marissa Kendall of CalMatters, who helped lead this investigation, dug into the findings with <a href=""https://tradeoffs.org/"">Compromises</a>a nonprofit news organization that covers health policy.</p> <p>You can listen to the full conversation with Kendall below on the Tradeoffs podcast or read the transcript on the Tradeoffs website. The podcast episode also features an interview with June Dudas, who turned to CARE Court after spending 40 years trying to help her cousin with schizophrenia. Dudas’ hopes and grief exemplify the struggles many families face as they try to help some of the country’s most vulnerable and hard-to-reach people.</p> <p><a href=""https://tradeoffs.org/2026/02/05/mental-illness-left-their-loved-ones-on-the-streets-californias-big-fix-hasnt-helped/""><strong>Listen here</strong></a><strong>.</strong> </p> <p>Here are some highlights from Kendall’s conversation with Tradeoffs:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Not as many people use CARE Court as expected. </strong>The Newsom administration estimated that about 12,000 Californians would qualify for CARE Court. As of October 2025, only 3,092 petitions had been filed, according to the most recent state data reviewed by CalMatters, and only 684 resulted in voluntary treatment agreements. </li> </ul> <ul> <li><strong>Despite the rhetoric of coercive treatment, the majority of CARE Court’s work is voluntary. </strong>While Newsom said the program would allow judges to order people to follow treatment plans, CalMatters found that is largely not happening. Only 22 treatment plans were ordered by October across the state.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>CARE Court was created by state law but is administered by California’s 58 counties. Most of the counties are not involved in forced treatment. <strong>Instead, places like San Diego County use the program to slowly build trust and encourage people to voluntarily accept treatment.</strong></li> </ul> <ul> <li><strong>Changes in the law are fueling low uptake.</strong> Between the time Newsom introduced the idea in March 2022 and when it became law six months later, lawmakers <a href=""https://calmatters.org/health/mental-health/2025/12/care-court-what-happened-in-legislature/"">significantly changed the program</a>. They limited eligibility to only people with schizophrenia and raised the bar to force treatment. Lawmakers also added additional documentation requirements to the application process. As a result, almost half of all cases are dismissed.</li> </ul> <p>This article was <a href=""https://calmatters.org/health/mental-health/2026/02/care-court-podcast-tradeoffs/"">originally published on CalMatters</a> and is republished under <a href=""https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/"">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives</a> license.</p> <p> Copy the HTML
