Overview: California’s Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Act, launched in 2023, provides community-based behavioral health services and supportive care to people with severe mental health disorders. The law allows family members, healthcare providers, outreach teams, and first responders to petition to create a voluntary CARE agreement or court-ordered CARE plan for those who have been unable to access services. Since its implementation across the state, more than 7,500 Californians have accessed treatment, medication, and housing through CARE. Riverside County was amongst one of the first counties to implement the program.
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Breanna Reeves
California Health and Human Services Agency Secretary Kim Johnson and Deputy Secretary Stephanie Welch met with behavioral health personnel and community partners in Riverside to discuss how California’s Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Act is working in the county.
During the roundtable meeting, Johnson and Welch heard from Riverside’s legal team and behavioral health specialists such as Dr. Matthew Chang, director of Riverside University Health System (RUHS) Behavioral Health and Riverside Superior Court Judge Magdalena Cohen who handles CARE cases.
“I also just want to focus on this: the fact that we are doing better by thinking about integrated behavioral health and substance use disorder and really doing whole person care and meeting the needs of the people collectively,” Johnson said.
Launched in 2023 in Riverside County, the CARE Act provides community-based behavioral health services and supportive care to Californians who experience schizophrenia, other psychotic disorders, or bipolar I disorder with psychotic features, who meet health and safety criteria.
Riverside County was among the first group of counties to implement the CARE Act along with Glenn, Orange, San Diego, Stanislaus, Tuolumne, and San Francisco Counties. In 2024, CARE became available in all California counties.
Under the law (Senate Bill 1338), CARE connects people to a team of behavioral and social experts that build trust and coordinate treatment, medication, and housing support through a civil court process called CARE Court.
CARE allows family members, healthcare providers, outreach teams and first responders to petition to create a voluntary CARE agreement or court-ordered CARE plan, issued by a CARE Court judge, for Californians who have been unable to access those services. The CARE Act sets out to prevent people with severe mental health disorders from entering restrictive conservatorships or incarceration.
California Health and Human Services Agency Secretary Kim Johnson (center) speaks at a roundtable with Riverside County behavioral health practitioners and community partners, including CARE Court Judge Judge Magdalena Cohen, in Riverside, CA on February 24, 2026. (Courtesy of CalHHS)
Following court assessments, if a person is eligible for CARE, a CARE agreement is created. It is a voluntary agreement entered into by the person with an untreated mental disorder and the county behavioral health agency. Each CARE plan is managed by a care team in the community and can include clinically prescribed, individualized interventions with several supportive services, medication, and a housing plan.
“The piece for me that has been spectacular about CARE is a new pathway for access. We’ve really worked as a discipline, as a field, to make sure that we provide as much access to services as possible, but many of the folks that I’ve worked with, their families, feel like they have no voice,” explained Sanie Andres, LMFT, and program administrator at the Restorative Transformation Center.
“They don’t have any way to really support their loved one, to access care. Their loved one may be too symptomatic or doesn’t have the insight into their own mental health needs, and so to be able to have a means for loved ones, first responders, other community members who are invested in people’s wellbeing, to be able to petition and act and help them access services is spectacular,” Andres continued.
Since its implementation across the state, more than 7,500 Californians have accessed treatment, medication and housing through CARE. CARE is part of the state’s broader $14 billion behavioral health transformation through California’s Mental Health for All — a plan to build a stronger and more equitable behavioral health system.
Riverside County residents can call the CARE Line at 800-499-3008 to be connected with services in their area. The line is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and is staffed by trained staff who can provide referrals and information in English and Spanish.
“There is no quick fix for people living with severe mental illness, but CARE has created a new approach that’s focused on dignity, progress and people’s unique needs,” said Welch. “Our mission is to continue to improve and strengthen CARE in partnership with California counties.”