Silicon Valley families say CARE Court has failed them

More than a year after Santa Clara County launched a new state-mandated program to treat people with severe mental illness, families claim the system has failed to help them.

When CARE Court was first proposed, Gov. Gavin Newsom heralded it as the solution to treat thousands struggling from a serious mental illness through involuntary treatment. Families breathed a sigh of relief knowing their adult children had a way to become mentally stabilized after years of struggling with a broken health care system. But the bill was changed to favor voluntary treatment and their hopes were dashed.

“I was very angry with the Legislature, with Gov. Newsom for not having the foresight to see basic assumptions that people are going to want treatment (is) not reality,” a father who put his son through the CARE Court system in San Mateo County, told San José Spotlight on condition of anonymity. “The biggest problem is there is no teeth in CARE Court. It’s not everyone’s right to die on the street, and that’s very well what might happen to my son.”

With the emphasis on voluntary treatment, and stringent requirements to be considered for the program including two periods of intensive treatment in the last 60 days in lieu of a clinician’s approval, the rules ultimately prevented CARE Court from serving the population it was meant to help, sources said.

Recently, the state expanded the program with Senate Bill 27 — effective Jan.1  — to include individuals diagnosed with bipolar I disorder with psychosis. A spokesperson for the Santa Clara County Superior Court said they expect to see an increase of petitions filed.

In order to qualify for CARE Court, a person must be diagnosed with schizophrenia or a psychotic disorder, or have a bipolar disorder with psychotic factors. Two forms need to be submitted to the court — one by the main petitioner, which can be a family member, someone who lives with the recipient or a first responder. A second form is completed by a clinician who has seen or attempted to see the individual in the last 60 days.

If these requirements are met, the individual will meet with a caseworker and have court hearings to come up with an agreement for treatment, which can include housing. If needed, judges can order treatment, but that has rarely happened statewide. After one year of care, individuals may graduate from the program.

But it’s not that simple.

Suraj, a father who asked to withhold his name for privacy reasons, said these rules don’t work for people like his son, who cannot even be evaluated by a mental health professional because he has locked himself in his apartment for the past five months.

In the rare moments he does leave his house, he drives aimlessly in his Tesla. He runs from Suraj and his wife when he sees them nearby. He refuses to answer the door. His extreme paranoia has caused him to believe people are out to get him, Suraj told San José Spotlight.

In 2023, his 36-year old son was diagnosed with bipolar disorder with psychosis. Prior to this, he was a director for multiple psychiatric practices and received his masters from Columbia University.

The downward spiral began when his son lost his startup business during COVID-19, coupled with a divorce, Suraj said. His son was seeing a private psychiatrist, but when Suraj tried to petition his son for CARE Court, the psychiatrist refused to sign the paperwork, stating that she no longer had a relationship with the patient. The psychiatrist offered to write a letter instead, according to a text seen by San José Spotlight.

The judge rejected Suraj’s petition because he did not have the required form, according to a court letter reviewed by this news outlet.

“The judge has to have more liberty to enforce the CARE Court system even with a doctor’s letter,” Suraj said. “We are at a rock and a hard place where we are not able to help our son. We are very, very desperate.”

Since December 2024 when the county began the program, Santa Clara County Superior Court has received 63 petitions for CARE Court, according to court data. Thirty-four cases were dismissed for failing to meet the requirements, among other reasons. In the last 15 months, six individuals agreed to voluntary treatment, and there have been no court-ordered involuntary treatments.

“CARE Court is one tool among many. The number of people who go through that process is not, and has never been, the sole measure of a county’s performance,” County Executive CEO James Williams previously said.

A flawed system

Statewide, 2,421 petitions have been filed from late 2023 to July 2025. Out of those petitions, 528 people entered into treatment agreements and judges mandated 14 involuntary court-ordered plans, according to a CalMatters analysis.

In lieu of mandated treatment, some people in Santa Clara County are waiting for their family members to commit a crime — which would allow them to get treatment inside jail, or go before a judge in a separate mental health court that replaces jail time with treatment and judicial supervision. Santa Clara County was one of the first in the nation to create a behavioral health court under Superior Court Judge Stephen Manley in 1999.

Monica Porter Gilbert, associate director at Disability Rights California, a group that pushed for voluntary treatment, said CARE Court is not working.

“People enrolled in CARE Court are placed on the same waitlists for services as anyone seeking services on their own, outside of the court,” Gilbert told San José Spotlight. “Legislative analysis conducted this past summer concluded that ‘the CARE model ends up being a very expensive way to coordinate (but not directly provide) important services.’”
Gilbert points to an annual report on CARE Court published in July 2025 showing 56% of participants in eight counties did not receive mental health treatment, in part due to administrative delays, service unavailability and lack of coordination across systems.

The best way forward, Gilbert said, is to meet people where they are at through mobile crisis response teams, hotlines that provide support and comprehensive services.

A single mom in San Jose, who asked not to be named for privacy concerns, has hope CARE Court may be a solution for her adult son. She said her son has finally agreed to get treatment, and he will have his CARE Court appointment later this month — though he may at any point choose to discontinue the program.

“I see how it’s helping me. I see how it’s helped me to handle my son, and I see how my son even understands where I’m coming from,” she told San José Spotlight.

Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or @joyce_speaks on X.