Mental health: involuntary commitment.

Existing law, the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, provides for the involuntary commitment and treatment of persons with specified mental disorders for the protection of the persons committed. Under the act, when a person, as a result of a mental health disorder, is a danger to others, or to themselves, or gravely disabled, the person may, upon probable cause, be taken into custody and placed in a facility designated by the county and approved by the State Department of Health Care Services for up to 72 hours for evaluation and treatment. If certain conditions are met after the 72-hour detention, the act authorizes the certification of the person for a 14-day maximum period of intensive treatment and then a 30-day maximum period of intensive treatment after the 14-day period. Existing law requires a certification review hearing to be held when a person is certified for a 14-day or 30-day intensive treatment detention, except as specified, and requires it to be within 4 days of the date on which the person is certified, but allows for a postponement for 48 hours or until the next regularly scheduled hearing date in specified smaller counties. This bill would, among other things, specify that the 72-hour period of detention begins at the time when the person is first detained. The bill would remove the provisions for postponement of the certification review hearing. The bill, when a person has not been certified for 14-day intensive treatment and remains detained on a 72-hour hold, would require a certification review hearing to be held within 7 days of the date the person was initially detained and would require the person in charge of the facility where the person is detained to notify the detained person of specified rights. Because the bill would expand the population of persons who are entitled to a certification review hearing, it would create a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.