The CARE Act: Understanding California’s New Model for Mental Health Treatment
Katherine Warburton
January 9, 2023
California Health & Human Services Agency
The CARE Act: Understanding California’s New Model for Mental Health Treatment
Intro
Individuals with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders are drifting into an untreated, unsheltered condition. These conditions are leading to increased contact with police and criminal charges. This increased contact is leading to a surge in IST referrals to state hospitals. Building more state hospital beds will only exacerbate the problem long term. IST restoration is not adequate long term treatment plan. So, what can we do?
Even though I am always telling people about what I see through my stories, only when I was watching my friend pray did I make a connection. I realized that I’ve been referencing a painting featuring Phillippe Pinel unshackling a mental patient from chains in 1876, but weirdly this was the first time I asked, “isn’t this the same mythology”? We’d have to ask Freud why I repressed this parallel. Maybe because it is just too much to bear-the fact that mental health wards 250 years later are worse- so it has never really consciously occurred to me.
