Conservatorship: Inside California's System of Coercion and Care for Mental Illness

In his book "Conservatorship," Alex V. Barnard explores the use of conservatorships to forcefully medicate and confine individuals with mental illness, raising concerns about abuse and the lack of compassionate care. He argues that California's state government has abdicated authority over the conservatorship system, leaving it dependent on financial incentives and underresourced clinicians, and that reforms to expand conservatorship will lead to more coercion without transformative care.

Format: Hardback
Length: 416 pages
Publication date: 26 September 2023
Publisher: Columbia University Press

The use of conservatorships, a legal tool to force individuals deemed "gravely disabled" or unable to meet their needs due to mental illness, has gained attention in recent years as a solution to the intertwined crises of untreated mental illness, homelessness, and addiction. While some politicians and advocates argue that conservatorships provide necessary care and protection for those who cannot care for themselves, civil liberties and disability rights groups have raised concerns about their abuse. Conservatorship is an insightful and compelling exploration of California's conservatorship system. Author Alex V. Barnard conducts hundreds of interviews with professionals, policy makers, families, and conservatees, taking readers to the streets where police encounter homeless people in crisis, the locked wards where individuals receive treatment, and the courtrooms where judges decide on conservatorship petitions. Through his research, Barnard reveals that California's state government has abdicated authority over the conservatorship system, leaving the question of who receives compassionate care and who faces coercion dependent on financial incentives of for-profit facilities, the constraints of underresourced clinicians, and the desperate struggles of families to obtain treatment for their loved ones. This book serves as a timely warning, emphasizing that reforms to expand conservatorship will lead to more coercion without significantly improving care until the government assumes accountability for ensuring the health and dignity of its most vulnerable citizens.

Dimension: 235 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780231210249