AB 2020 – California Assembly (20212022) – Open States

Abstract

Existing law, the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, provides for the involuntary commitment and treatment of a person who is a danger to themselves or others or who is gravely disabled. Existing law also provides for a conservator of the person or estate to be appointed for a person who is gravely disabled. Existing law, for the purposes of involuntary commitment and conservatorship, defines “gravely disabled,” among other things, as a condition in which a person, as a result of a mental health disorder, is unable to provide for the basic personal needs of food, clothing, or shelter.

This bill would, if a county elects to use this meaning and subject to an appropriation of funds for these purposes, expand the definition of “gravely disabled” for these purposes to mean a condition in which a person, as a result of a mental health disorder, is incapable of making informed decisions about, or providing for, their own basic personal needs for food, clothing, shelter, or medical care without significant supervision and assistance from another person and, as a result of being incapable of making these informed decisions, the person is at risk of substantial bodily harm, dangerous worsening of a concomitant serious physical illness, significant psychiatric deterioration, or mismanagement of essential needs that could result in bodily harm. The bill would also, if a county elects to use this meaning and subject to an appropriation of funds for these purposes, define “gravely disabled” to mean a condition in which a person has an incapacity to provide informed consent to treatment due to anosognosia.