The Brief

The number of people in Los Angeles County who participated in the first year of a program aimed at providing court-led treatment plans for people who live with serious mental illness remains far below initial state projections, according to data from county mental health authorities.

Known as CARE Court, the new program was promised as an innovative approach to bringing thousands of Californians living with untreated serious mental illness under the care of mental health professionals.

But numbers from the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health show the county received about 16% of the petitions it was projected to get during the first six months of the program. From December of last year through mid-November, 308 petitions were filed in L.A. Superior Court, authorities said.

The petition numbers from Orange and Riverside counties are similarly low compared to estimates of how many people in those areas are potentially eligible for CARE Court.

“It’s been very frustrating to watch the slow pace of petitions by anyone other than family members,” Lisa Dailey, executive director of the Treatment Advocacy Center, a group that advocates for policies that benefit people living with serious mental illness, told LAist. Still, Dailey has hope for the program and thinks it deserves more effort.

Some critics see the paltry engagement as indicative of a failed policy. But supporters say the program needs more time and effort from county behavioral health departments.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, who championed the new approach, said he’s proud to see “early achievements,” including some 1,400 people throughout the state who were connected to CARE Courts or county services directly.

In March 2022, Governor Newsom spoke with local mental health service providers and officials about CARE Court. The discussion was held at a facility in South L.A. that’s a temporary home to about 30 people who are getting treatment for mental health or substance use struggles.

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Robert Garrova / LAist

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State officials estimated before the program’s launch that it could help between 7,000 -12,000 Californians a year.

Slow progress 

CARE Court allows family members, behavioral health workers, first responders and others to ask a court — by way of a petition — to step in with a voluntary care plan for someone living with serious mental illness, like schizophrenia. If the plan fails, the person could be hospitalized or referred to a conservatorship.

Between Dec. 1, 2023 and Nov. 20, there were 308 petitions filed in Los Angeles County, far below the roughly 1,900 state officials projected for the first six months of the program. Of those, 28 participants signed on to agreements and four moved forward to the stage in which they were expected to receive a CARE Plan, ordered by the Superior Court.

Some experts say that progress has been slow, particularly in a county where thousands of people living with serious mental illness sleep on the streets every night.

The 2024 Point-In-Time count found that 24% of unhoused people over the age of 18 self-reported that they live with a serious mental illness, according to the Los Angeles Homelessness Services Authority, which conducts the annual count.

Martin Jones, a program manager with the L.A. County Department of Mental Health, said there are about 70 county staffers working on CARE Court. He said working with human beings — gaining their trust and establishing a rapport — takes time and that just physically getting someone to court can take multiple staffers.

“I think that we’ve seen a lot of success from individuals who we’ve been told if CARE had not intervened this person would have died on the streets,” Jones said. “How do you really calculate the value of those kinds of stories? And I believe that it’s incalculable.”

Jones said he expected the first wave of L.A. County CARE Court graduations to happen early next year.

‘A very narrow niche’

For Alex V. Barnard, author of the book Conservatorship: Inside California’s System of Coercion and Care for Mental Illness, the lackluster CARE Court numbers were all too predictable.

“It was clear from the beginning that this was a program that would be very hard to access, and would serve a very narrow niche,” Barnard wrote in an email to LAist.

Eligibility criteria for CARE Court state that a participant must be diagnosed with a psychotic spectrum disorder, like schizophrenia. Bipolar disorder is not included. The criteria also say that the participant can’t be in ongoing treatment.

Barnard said he predicts that CARE Court will remain a small piece of the mental health treatment landscape, overshadowed by what was known as Senate Bill 43, a new state law that expands the criteria for involuntary treatment.

The measure, signed by Newsom in October 2023, changed state law to allow people living with a serious mental illness or severe substance use disorder who are unable to provide for their personal safety or medical care to be deemed “gravely disabled” and held against their will.

Barnard also questions whether the multi-million dollar investment in CARE Court might have been better spent on beds and services, which the county is severely lacking.

“It's really not clear why you need a court to get mental health departments to provide mental health care to individuals with mental health challenges, though, versus fixing issues around financing and prioritization within that system,” he said.

‘A policy failure’ 

Eve Garrow, senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said funding directed towards CARE Court should instead be going to community-based care. The low participation numbers are evidence to her that the effort is not working.

“I think by any measure, I would say the CARE Act to date is a policy failure,” Garrow said. “It’s used precious resources — public funds — to fund a court system that is not even being used.”

In 2022, 40 groups — including JusticeLA, Disability Rights California and ACLU California Action — signed a letter saying the program would strip “people with mental health disabilities of their right to make their own decisions about their lives.”

Garrow said she believed CARE Court was the wrong response to a very real problem: “Which is people with serious mental health disabilities -- many of whom are unhoused -- living without access to the care and services they need,” she said.

In her experience, Garrow said, most people who are offered quality mental health care will accept it voluntarily.

More time 

Still, other mental health policy watchers are sticking by CARE Court, even if its initial expansion has been sluggish.

Dr. Susan Partovi, a family physician who does street outreach with the L.A. Centers for Alcohol and Drug Abuse, said the low participation may be partly because the Department of Mental Health needs to make more people aware of CARE Court and who it might help.

“I think they really need to be advertising this on a regular basis, because it’s hard to remember,” Partovi said, adding that the underwhelming numbers were a reminder for her that she could be filing more petitions.

According to the L.A. County Department of Mental Health, just 10 petitions came from provider networks.

Dailey, with the Treatment Advocacy Center, said county efforts have been partly to blame for what she sees as “unfortunate” numbers in the program’s first year. Jones, with the Department of Mental Health, said the county was now making a push to train more first responders on how to file petitions and when they might be appropriate. Only 22 of L.A. County’s 308 petitions were filed by the county Department of Mental Health.

The overwhelming majority came from family members.

“If there was no need for it, you wouldn’t see this initial rush from family members to try to get people into care,” Dailey said.

Now’s the time to prepare for this year’s potentially historic El Niño season.

The climate pattern could bring rain, flooding and mudslides in the next few months. Surging sea levels could hit even sooner, along with the coastal erosion that comes with it.

El Niño is driven by abnormally warm ocean temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Sea surface temperatures hit record levels more than a month ago. That means there’s more than a 90% chance that this year’s El Niño will be extremely strong, according to the National Weather Service.

Strong El Niño years have historically brought heavy rain and elevated sea levels to Southern California, although scientists warn that it’s impossible to predict exactly where and when those effects will hit.

Emergency management officials are preparing for severe impacts on the region by readying flood-control infrastructure, building up coastal defenses and deploying extra crews and equipment.

They’re also urging residents to prepare for themselves.

“The most important step is to prepare before a warning is issued,” said Jon O’Brien, chief deputy of emergency operations for L.A. County. “Know whether your home or route is vulnerable to flooding or debris flows. Sign up for local emergency alerts. Make a plan to leave if directed.”

Here are a few steps you can take to start preparing now for El Niño.

Sign up for alerts

Signing up for emergency alerts from trusted sources is a key first step in preparing for extreme weather.

“One of the most important things that residents can do is make sure that you have multiple ways to receive forecasts, watches and warnings from credible sources,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Ariel Cohen.

Public safety officials emphasize that when you do receive an emergency alert, it’s important to take it seriously and follow any instructions that come with it.

Understanding risks

Next, you should learn how weather events and coastal hazards can affect you specifically.

The MyHazard tool from the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services lays out the risks that could affect your property and the surrounding area and how severe those risks could be.

Understanding the specific threats you face is key to planning your response. Those that are likely to come with El Niño include flooding, landslides, sea level rise and debris flows in postfire zones.

It’s also important to consider risks beyond your property and neighborhood. Look for hazards along the routes you take to important places, such as school and work, or would take to places like a hospital or an evacuation shelter. Make a plan for alternate routes in case roads are flooded, washed out or blocked.

Making a plan

Emergency management officials say developing a clear plan is one of the most effective ways to ensure your family is resilient during an emergency or disaster.

Here are some recommendations for what to include in an emergency plan:

• Identify a meeting place for your family outside of your home and neighborhood.
• Know your evacuation routes. Identify the quickest, safest way to leave your home and neighborhood.
• Know the location of utility shutoffs so that you know how to turn off your water, gas and electricity in an emergency.
• If you don’t know already, ask schools and adult-care centers what their emergency plans are, especially when it comes to supplies and transportation.
• Keep important documents accessible and ready in the event of an evacuation, as well as other important items, such as family photos.
• Keep an inventory of extra medications that you and your loved ones may need.
• Make special provisions for children, seniors, pets, people with disabilities, and non-English speakers.
• Schedule an annual family run-through of the emergency plan. 

It’s a good idea to put together a household communication plan that includes contact information for family members and other important people, including an out-of-state emergency contact. It should also have contact information for nearby hospitals, family doctors, schools and employers.

Another important consideration is planning for family members or neighbors who rely on electricity to power medical equipment or other essential support devices in case there’s a power outage. Officials recommend making a plan for accessing a backup power source in the case of a power outage.

If that plan includes a generator, however, it's essential to follow safety rules. That includes keeping a generator at a safe distance and never operating one indoors, as that can cause a buildup of deadly carbon monoxide gas.

Officials are urging residents to reach out to their neighbors ahead of time, especially those who need special assistance.

“ Connect with family and neighbors in your community, and build out that network. Neighbors helping neighbors is a really important point,” said L.A. County’s director of aging and disability, Maral Karaccusian.

It’s also important to have a plan in place for pets and other animals.

For dogs and cats, make sure your contact information is listed on their collar and that you bring pet food with you in an evacuation. It’s also a good idea to have your pet microchipped — if you’ve had your furry friend for a while, double-check that the info associated with the microchip is current.

Olivia Sanderfoot stands on a flower-freckled hillside in Amherst in Western Massachusetts. She listens for a moment — and a volley of birdsong flutters forth.

An Eastern Wood-Pewee. A goldfinch. A downy woodpecker.

"It's just magical," she says with an air of reverence. There are birds foraging among the flowers. Fluffy fledglings are darting about, learning the ways of the world.

"Every day that I get to start birding is a good day," she says. "If you want to get the widest range of species and hear the most songs, you want to be out here in the morning."

Sanderfoot, a global change ecologist at Cornell University, knows that for the birds that live here, not every morning is this idyllic. Over the summer, this area was suffused with toxic smoke from distant wildfires in Canada. It's an increasingly common problem, even in places untouched by flames. Fire season is starting earlier, lasting later, burning more land — and as a result, producing far more smoke.

"Smoke can blow hundreds to thousands of miles away from that burn site," Sanderfoot explains. "That means that the footprint of a smoke event greatly exceeds that of any fire. How do birds deal with that?"

This is the central question animating Sanderfoot's desire to form a new field of study called "smoke ecology." The goal, she says, is to understand how the smoke billowing off of wildfires may be disturbing wild places and creatures — and whether anything can be done to prevent possible harm.

Air today, gone tomorrow

Sanderfoot's curiosity about how birds cope with smoke emerged in 2018 when she was living in Seattle and wildfires blazed in Eastern Washington. "The air smelled acrid," she recalls. "The city was just blanketed in this sickly yellow, gray haze."

She was told it was a one-time event — yet the same thing happened two years later.

"I remember walking outside and my eyes were just burning," Sanderfoot says. "And I thought, 'What on earth are animals doing? Are they OK?'"

An adult bluebird sits atop a nesting box containing its chicks at the Mass Audubon's Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary.

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Aaron Gouveia/Mass Audubon

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Very little was known apart from anecdotes — like the absence of birdsong or the arrival of droves of birds to a backyard, famished and parched.

"Smoke is a toxic soup of substances," she says. "It's not just about what [birds are] inhaling, which is inevitably bad for them. It's also about how the cues that they use to navigate their world are upended when it gets smoky outside."

To puzzle out what was going on, Sanderfoot realized that she needed to collaborate with researchers from a range of other disciplines, including conservation biology, statistics, ecophysiology and atmospheric chemistry.

"Real-world problems don't map cleanly onto the same academic silos that have been set up for decades," says Tracey Holloway, an atmospheric chemist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the lead of NASA's Health and Air Quality Applied Sciences Team, and a colleague of Sanderfoot's. "We need to be tackling new problems with new partnerships."

For instance, in order to understand what birds are inhaling, one has to know what's moving through the air in time and three-dimensional space. "It depends on which way the winds are blowing," says Holloway, "what chemical processes are happening in the air, and also patterns of rainfall and where the emissions are coming from." The science depends on air quality monitoring, satellite data, and evermore sophisticated computer modeling.

Birds are especially sensitive to smoke in large part because of how they breathe. A human being has soft lungs that allow inhalation and exhalation of air. By contrast, birds have rigid lungs surrounded by a collection of air sacs that act like bellows, pushing air continuously through the system.

"This allows birds to take up about twice as much oxygen with each breath that they inhale compared to us," says Sanderfoot. "This means that they're vulnerable to all the other things that are in the air, too."

Morgan Tingley, an ecologist at UCLA, is another member of the burgeoning smoke ecology cohort. "What we're trying to do is getting smoke to be recognized as a disturbance in and of itself distinct from fire that is worthy of our concentrated attention," he says.

For much of his career, Tingley has studied wildfires — events with a clear start and stop, and defined borders. But the smoke produced by those wildfires can present its own unique set of problems, as it can spread far from the original blaze.

"Smoke is extremely hard to predict and it's highly variable," he says. "It can be there one day, one hour, and gone the next. Which means that it's hard to actually disentangle what its impacts are because you can't really control it."

This means that it's not possible to anticipate where smoke will appear, or when. Scientists also prefer not to subject animals to smoke intentionally.

So when it comes to studying wildfire smoke and birds, the trick is to gather data everywhere. To do so, the researchers rely on legions of amateur birders and professional conservationists and ornithologists across the country who are already on the ground collecting data when smoke happens to blow in.

Big army, little birds

One such individual is Pam Sowizral, the bird project coordinator at Mass Audubon's Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary in Lincoln outside of Boston. On a sunny morning in late August, she walks up to a bluebird nest box and gently raps on the outside.

Pam Sowizral is one of the legions of birders and conservationists across the country who are already on the ground collecting data about birds when smoke happens to blow in.

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Ari Daniel

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NPR

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"Always give a little knock first," she advises quietly. "Let them know you're coming." When she lifts the side panel, she reveals two feathery puffballs huddled on a bed of pine needles. These baby bluebirds are the last of the season here.

Sowizral says that nearly every year for the last 20 years, three times a week in spring and summer, she and her volunteers check the bird boxes here and count the nests and the eggs and how many chicks fledge. They check when the weather's good, when it's bad (within reason) — and when the smoke rolls in.

"Those periods of time when the smoke was here, the air somehow felt a little different," she says. But "that didn't stop us from doing our usual monitoring of our boxes."

That's key. Nationally, counts like this one, which is part of Cornell University's NestWatch project, provide a portrait of bird activity and behavior before, during and after smoke events.

Two feathery puffballs huddle on a bed of pine needles in a nesting box. These baby bluebirds are the last of the season.

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Ari Daniel

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NPR

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Sanderfoot of Cornell University says she's using these kinds of observations, alongside observations of breeding behavior, to help her understand how birds are coping with wildfire smoke in a variety of places.

She's revealed three distinct strategies, depending on the species and the individual birds. They either hunker down and stay put, fly away, or shift their behavior — by not vocalizing as much or venturing out less often, say.

"This could be an attempt to mitigate their exposure," says Sanderfoot. "It might also be how they are forced to respond if they feel unwell."

In addition, she and her colleagues have observed that repeated exposure to smoke appears to impair the body condition of a variety of birds, leading to lower weight overall.

"They all respond in different ways," she says. "And we need to figure out what those ways are and how effective they are in order to design effective conservation strategies for a rapidly changing world."

This is one of Sanderfoot's top priorities: determining what might constitute what she calls smoke refugia for birds — safer spots where they can hunker down until conditions improve. "I want to know where birds are going when it's smoky," she says, "what resources they're seeking out, and what we could provide to help them during a risky time" — like water and perhaps shelter or food.

"I would like to be able to give people something they can do to help," she says.

Sanderfoot's personal experience with wildfires didn't end in Seattle. "I almost feel like the smoke is following me," she says.

In early 2025, she and her family fled the fires in Los Angeles, where they were living at the time. And this summer, she watched as a blanket of smoke descended upon parts of the U.S., including Ithaca, where she lives now, blowing off the remote Canadian infernos. She says she doesn't think it's a coincidence.

"Let's put it this way," she says: "We can expect that the future will be smokier."

It's a fact that's true for birds and people, which means that what Sanderfoot and her colleagues learn about smoke ecology may reveal a clearer way forward — for us all.

"By learning more about birds," she says, "I think we might learn something about how we can take care of ourselves and each other."

Copyright 2026 NPR

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Despite an intense heat wave scorching Southern California this week, temperatures will begin to cool, just in time to enjoy car-free streets in Boyle Heights for CicLAvia this weekend.

On Sunday, Oct. 11, a 6.5-mile stretch of road will be closed to cars from Mariachi Plaza to Echo Park for CicLAvia’s Heart of L.A., encouraging residents to enjoy open streets in their neighborhood. This year, Boyle Heights Beat and The LA Local will be tabling at CicLAvia to share more about our community-centered reporting.

Whether you choose to walk, run, or roll, be sure to enjoy the fresh air, drink plenty of water, and wear sunscreen (and don’t forget your helmet if you’re on wheels!). 

Here’s what to know about street closures, local gems to explore across the neighborhoods and how to get reimbursed for parking. 

Cyclists and pedestrians head down 1st Street during CicLAvia on Oct. 15, 2023.

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Andrew Lopez

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Boyle Heights Beat

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When is it and what can I expect? 

CicLAvia Heart of LA will take place Sunday, Oct. 11 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Participants can expect to see local gems along the route, restaurants and vendors, and event hubs featuring activations and water refill stations.

What is the route? 

The route spans 6.5 miles through Boyle Heights, the Arts District, Little Tokyo, Downtown, Chinatown and Echo Park.

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Courtesy of CicLAvia

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What kind of vehicles are allowed at the event?

Only people-powered vehicles are allowed, including bikes, scooters, skateboards, and rollerblades.

Motorized wheelchairs and mobility devices for people with disabilities are allowed. E-bikes are allowed with some restrictions. See the full guidelines here.

What streets in Boyle Heights will be affected?

Stretches of 1st Street, St. Louis Street, Boyle Avenue, Whittier Boulevard and the 6th Street Bridge will all be closed to car traffic. Check out the full event map here.

Street closures will begin as early as 4 a.m. on the day of the event. Streets are expected to reopen by 6 p.m.

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Courtesy of CicLAvia

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Parking and transportation 

No street parking is allowed along the CicLAvia route from 1 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Driveways along the route will also be inaccessible from 7 a.m. to approximately 6 p.m. on Sunday, so be sure to plan ahead and move your car before 7 a.m. if you need to use it. 

According to the CicLAvia website, cars will be towed if they are parked along the event route.

If you live or work directly on the route, CicLAvia says you may be reimbursed up to $20 per vehicle for any parking costs incurred from 8 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 10 through 6 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 11.

To request reimbursement:

• Email a copy of your parking receipt and proof of residence or employment to info@ciclavia.org with the subject line “Parking Reimbursement.”
• Reimbursement requests must be submitted within 30 days of the event date.

All buses that usually run along the CicLAvia route will be detoured on the day of the event. A full list of bus detours can be found here.

In Boyle Heights, these Metro stations are located less than half a mile from the route:

• Pico Aliso, E Line – 0.4 miles
• Mariachi Plaza, E Line – less than 0.1 mile
• Soto, E Line – 0.3 miles

Where to find Boyle Heights Beat

Be sure to check out a range of event hubs, local gems, shops and restaurants along the route using this interactive map. And come say hi to the Boyle Heights Beat team—we will be stationed at the Mariachi Plaza Hub from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.