Photo courtesy of PPTFH
By LILY TINOCO | Reporter
Pacific Palisades Task Force on Homelessness invited Judge Stephen V. Manley of the Santa Clara County Superior Court and Sheila Carter from the NAMI Westside LA Board of Directors to its latest meeting on Monday, July 25, to discuss approaches to helping people experiencing homelessness who are severely mentally ill.
“We believe that now is the time for all of us to begin to focus on actionable, strategic solutions to the issue of homelessness,” PPTFH Co-President Sharon Browning said in her opening remarks. “It’s time to risk imperfection, possibly some failure, in order to move toward caring, compassionate, effective change.”
Browning went on to discuss the topic of the night: the proposed Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment court legislation.
She said CARE Court is a proposed framework, created to deliver mental health and substance use disorder services to the most severely impaired Californians who are homeless or incarcerated and not currently receiving treatment.
Manley—who presides over misdemeanor and felony drug and mental health cases in Santa Clara County—has developed special court programs to help get offenders with mental illness or substance use disorders into treatment and out of jail. He succeeded Browning in the conversation, providing additional information on the proposal.
“To me, CARE Court is a beginning, and we’re going to be talking about … what are the next steps?” Manley said. “You can’t get to those until you start something different, innovative and try as hard as you can to make it work … I speak only for myself … I strongly support this proposal.
“It is really trying to stop criminalization of mental illness, repeated incarcerations and the use of conservatorships. It is placed in a civil context, not criminal.”
He emphasized the urgency to enact the proposal, sharing that jails were never intended to be treatment facilities, and that a new approach is necessary to provide treatment and support individuals.
“We want to build trust,” he said. “We want to engage people in the streets, not in a jail cell. We want them to be actively involved in making the decisions … You ask, ‘How can somebody in a different reality make a decision?’ They can, if you work with them … Patience is everything … Trust is everything.”
Manley said CARE Court would be California’s largest investment to date in helping homeless and/or severely mentally ill individuals.
“Treatment works in the community,” Manley concluded. “We just have to invest in it, believe in it and support the individuals who come before us every day.”
Carter—an advocate for policy and practices on behalf of those with serious mental illness—has an adult son and daughter who have both been diagnosed with mental illness. She was introduced after Manley’s presentation to speak on her personal experience, the depths of having children with mental illness and “the challenges so many families face.”
“Most people with gravely ill loved ones are never given an opportunity to help their loved ones,” Carter said. “This is one of the reasons CARE Court can have impact on helping those get the critical help they need. It should be treatment before tragedy, and help, not handcuffs. As a family member, I believe CARE Court is a start in the right direction.”
Manley and Carter closed the meeting by taking questions from attendees.
PPTFH invited community members to attend its next meeting, slated for Monday, September 26, at 7 p.m.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
