BILL NUMBER: AB 193 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE SEPTEMBER 2, 2015
AMENDED IN SENATE JULY 6, 2015
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 22, 2015
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 28, 2015
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 14, 2015
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Maienschein
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Chávez, Cooley, and Mathis)
JANUARY 28, 2015
An act to amend Sections 5350.2, 5352, 5354, and 5360 of the
Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to conservatorships.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 193, as amended, Maienschein. Mental health: conservatorship
hearings.
Existing law provides a procedure for the appointment of a
conservator for a person who is determined to be gravely disabled as
a result of a mental disorder or an impairment by chronic
alcoholism alcoholism, and requires an officer,
including a county public guardian or a county mental health program,
to conduct a conservatorship investigation and render a written
report to the court of his or her investigation. Under existing law,
a professional person in charge of an agency providing comprehensive
evaluation or a facility providing intensive treatment for a gravely
disabled person may recommend a conservatorship for that person, and
the agency is required to disclose any records or information that
may facilitate an investigation. Existing law requires the officer
providing conservatorship investigation, when he or she concurs with
the recommendation of the professional person or facility, to
petition the superior court in the patient's county of residence for
a conservatorship. Existing law also provides for the establishment
of a conservatorship for a person who is unable to properly provide
for his or her personal needs or is substantially unable to manage
his or her finances.
This bill would authorize the court, if a conservatorship has
already been established under the Probate Code, and after a hearing
attended by the conservatee, unless he or she waives presence,
and the conservatee's counsel, to order an investigation
from, and to recommend a conservatorship to,
from the officer providing conservatorship investigation if the
court, in consultation with a licensed physician or psychologist, as
specified, providing comprehensive evaluation or intensive
treatment, determines, in a specified proceeding, that the
conservatee may be gravely disabled as a result of a mental disorder
or impairment by chronic alcoholism and is unwilling to accept, or is
incapable of accepting, treatment voluntarily. The bill would also
require the court to appoint counsel to a conservatee if he or she
cannot afford counsel. The bill would require the officer providing
conservatorship investigation to petition the superior court in the
patient's county of residence to establish conservatorship if he or
she concurs with the recommendation
conservatorship investigation order of the court, and to file a
copy of his or her report with the court. The bill would require a
conservator, if conservatorship is recommended by the court,
conservator to disclose any records or
information that may facilitate the investigation. The bill would
also make conforming changes.
By expanding the duties of the county officer providing
conservatorship investigation, this bill would impose a
state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local
agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates
determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state,
reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these
statutory provisions.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 5350.2 of the Welfare and Institutions Code is
amended to read:
5350.2. Reasonable attempts shall be made by the county mental
health program to notify family members, or any other person
designated to receive notice by the person for whom conservatorship
is sought, of the time and place of the conservatorship hearing. The
person for whom the conservatorship is sought shall be advised by the
facility treating the person, or by the court in a proceeding under
the Probate Code, Code if the
recommendation conservatorship investigation order
was made pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 5352, that he
or she may request that information about the time and place of the
conservatorship hearing not be given to family members if the
proposed conservator is not a family member. The request shall be
honored by the mental health program. Neither this section nor
Section 5350 shall be interpreted to allow the proposed conservatee
to request that any proposed conservator not be advised of the time
and place of the conservatorship hearing.
SEC. 2. Section 5352 of the Welfare and Institutions Code is
amended to read:
5352. (a) If the professional person in charge of an agency
providing comprehensive evaluation or a facility providing intensive
treatment determines that a person in his or her care is gravely
disabled as a result of mental disorder or impairment by chronic
alcoholism and is unwilling to accept, or incapable of accepting,
treatment voluntarily, he or she may recommend conservatorship of the
person to the officer providing conservatorship investigation of the
person's county of residence before admitting the person as a
patient in the facility.
(b) The professional person in charge of an agency providing
comprehensive evaluation or a facility providing intensive treatment
may recommend conservatorship for a person without the person being
an inpatient in the facility if both of the following conditions are
met:
(1) The professional person or another professional person
designated by him or her has examined and evaluated the person and
determined that the person is gravely disabled.
(2) The professional person or another professional person
designated by him or her has determined that future examination on an
inpatient basis is not necessary for a determination that the person
is gravely disabled.
(c) (1) If a conservatorship has already been established under
the Probate Code, the court, in a proceeding under the Probate Code,
after a an evidentiary hearing attended
by the conservatee, unless the conservatee waives presence, and
the conservatee's counsel, may order an investigation
from, and recommend a conservatorship of the person under this
chapter to, from the officer providing
conservatorship investigation of the person's county of residence if
the court, in a proceeding under the Probate Code, in consultation
with a licensed physician or licensed psychologist satisfying the
conditions of subdivision (c) of Section 2032.020 of the Code of
Civil Procedure providing comprehensive evaluation or intensive
treatment, determines based on evidence presented to the court,
including medical evidence, that the conservatee may be gravely
disabled as a result of a mental disorder or impairment by chronic
alcoholism and is unwilling to accept or is incapable of accepting
treatment voluntarily. If the conservatee cannot afford counsel, the
court, in a proceeding under the Probate Code, shall appoint counsel
for him or her.
(2) The officer providing conservatorship investigation shall file
a copy of his or her report with the court making the
recommendation conservatorship investigation order
in a proceeding under the Probate Code.
(d) If the officer providing conservatorship investigation concurs
with the recommendation of the professional person, pursuant to
subdivision (a) or (b), or the conservatorship investigation
order of the court, pursuant to subdivision (c), he or she
shall petition the superior court in the patient's county of
residence to establish conservatorship.
(e) If temporary conservatorship is indicated, that fact shall be
alternatively pleaded in the petition. The officer providing
conservatorship investigation or other county officer or employee
designated by the county shall act as the temporary conservator.
SEC. 3. Section 5354 of the Welfare and Institutions Code is
amended to read:
5354. (a) The officer providing conservatorship investigation
shall investigate all available alternatives to conservatorship and
shall recommend conservatorship to the court only if no suitable
alternatives are available. This officer shall render to the court a
written report of investigation before the hearing. The report to the
court shall be comprehensive and shall contain all relevant aspects
of the person's medical, psychological, financial, family,
vocational, and social condition, and information obtained from the
person's family members, close friends, social worker, or principal
therapist. The report shall also contain all available information
concerning the person's real and personal property. The facilities
providing intensive treatment or comprehensive evaluation shall
disclose any records or information that may facilitate the
investigation. If the recommendation for
conservatorship investigation order was made pursuant to
subdivision (c) of Section 5352, the conservator in a proceeding
under the Probate Code shall disclose any records or information that
may facilitate the investigation. If the officer providing
conservatorship investigation recommends against conservatorship, he
or she shall set forth all alternatives available. A copy of the
report shall be transmitted to the individual who, or the
court, in a proceeding under the Probate Code, that,
who originally recommended conservatorship,
conservatorship, or, in a proceeding under the Probate Code, to
the court that originally made a conservatorship
investigation order, to the person or agency, if any,
recommended to serve as conservator, and to the person recommended
for conservatorship. The court may receive the report in evidence and
may read and consider the contents thereof in rendering its
judgment.
(b) Notwithstanding Section 5328, when a court with jurisdiction
over a person in a criminal case orders an evaluation of the person's
mental condition pursuant to Section 5200, and that evaluation leads
to a conservatorship investigation, the officer providing the
conservatorship investigation shall serve a copy of the report
required under subdivision (a) upon the defendant or the defendant's
counsel. Upon the prior written request of the defendant or the
defendant's counsel, the officer providing the conservatorship
investigation shall also submit a copy of the report to the court
hearing the criminal case, the district attorney, and the county
probation department. The conservatorship investigation report and
the information contained in that report, shall be kept confidential
and shall not be further disclosed to anyone without the prior
written consent of the defendant. After disposition of the criminal
case, the court shall place all copies of the report in a sealed
file, except as follows:
(1) The defendant and the defendant's counsel may retain their
copy.
(2) If the defendant is placed on probation status, the county
probation department may retain a copy of the report for the purpose
of supervision of the defendant until the probation is terminated, at
which time the probation department shall return its copy of the
report to the court for placement into the sealed file.
SEC. 4. Section 5360 of the Welfare and Institutions Code is
amended to read:
5360. (a) The officer providing conservatorship investigation
shall recommend, in his or her report to the court, for or against
imposition of a disability set forth in Section 5357 on the basis of
the determination of the professional person who recommended
conservatorship pursuant to subdivision (a) or (b) of Section 5352,
or the determination of the physician or psychologist who presented
medical evidence to the court pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section
5352.
(b) The officer providing conservatorship investigation shall
recommend in his or her report any of the additional powers of a
conservator set forth in Section 2591 of the Probate Code if the
needs of the individual patient or his estate require such powers. In
making this determination, the officer providing conservatorship
investigation shall consult with the professional person who
recommended conservatorship pursuant to subdivision (a) or (b) of
Section 5352, or the physician or psychologist who presented medical
evidence to the court pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 5352.
SEC. 5. If the Commission on State Mandates determines that this
act contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to local
agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made pursuant
to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division 4 of Title 2 of
the Government Code.