LA County says a program meant to help people with serious mental illness is gaining traction

After a slow start, a program that aims to bring thousands of Angelenos living with serious mental illness under court-led care has seen a spike in petitions filed in recent months, Los Angeles County officials said.

CARE Court allows family members, first responders and others to ask a court — by way of a petition — to step in with a voluntary care agreement for someone living with serious, untreated mental illness, such as schizophrenia, to receive community-based mental health services.

If the agreement fails, a judge could order the individual to sign on to a treatment plan.

Since launching in L.A. County in December 2023, the program saw thousands fewer petitions each year than were initially projected.

But county officials said petitions filed in L.A. County jumped by about 85% between November 2025 and March 2026, with March seeing a total of 68 petitions.

Martin Jones, a program manager with the L.A. County Department of Mental Health, attributed the increase to working with hospitals, first responders and other groups to identify and refer people who might need help.

“We’re doing quite a bit of work to put tools in their hands to also help them identify and refer folks to us who might benefit from the support,” Jones told LAist. “I think we’re approaching the project from several fronts and we’re seeing the results of that.”

Jones added that a broadening of the diagnostic criteria in January to include people living with bipolar I disorder with psychotic features has also led to more petitions.

A ‘broken system’ 

Proponents of CARE Court say it provides a less restrictive and structured way to stabilize people living with a mental illness, and they say the recent increase in petitions shows that the program is gaining traction.

Some mental health and civil liberties advocates don’t see it as a positive development.

“The number of petitions says nothing about outcomes, which is the real point of the program,” said Eve Garrow, policy analyst at the ACLU of Southern California. “Positive outcomes are really miniscule compared to the population in need.”

Analysis of the program statewide has shown that about half of the petitions end up getting dismissed, but L.A. County officials say more than 4,000 Californians statewide have been set up with alternative county services when a CARE agreement or plan is not appropriate.

Some critics, including Garrow, have called the program a waste of taxpayer money.

An analysis by the state Assembly Committee on the Judiciary on CARE Court looked at the 100 participants in the program statewide in fiscal year 2024 and found the cost per person was about $713,000.

Garrow said CARE Court ultimately doesn’t address the underlying problem: a mental and behavioral health system that is underfunded.

“Basically what it does is it slaps a court order onto a broken system instead of fixing the system,” Garrow said.

Between Dec. 1, 2023, and June 30, 2026, there were 1,111 petitions filed in L.A. County, far below the roughly 3,800 state officials projected the county could expect annually.

An L.A. County Department of Mental Health spokesperson said that through June 2026, 21 people had graduated from a 12-month CARE court program, with four additional participants scheduled to graduate within the next year.

The department added that, in L.A. County, "63% of CARE Court participants have opted to continue receiving services and support through CARE instead of graduating."