{"id":78083,"date":"2025-12-17T11:45:02","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T19:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=78083"},"modified":"2025-12-17T11:45:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T19:45:02","slug":"mental-health-public-health-departments-to-implement-new-definition-to-grave-disability-under-conservatorship-law-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=78083","title":{"rendered":"MENTAL HEALTH &#038; PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENTS TO IMPLEMENT NEW DEFINITION TO \u201cGRAVE DISABILITY\u201d UNDER CONSERVATORSHIP LAW IN 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: medium;\"><strong>LOS ANGELES, CA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 On January 1, 2026, the Los Angeles County Departments of Mental Health (LACDMH) and Public Health will implement Senate Bill 43, the law that expands the definition of \u201cgravely disabled\u201d under California\u2019s Lanterman-Petris-Short (LPS) Act.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: medium;\">Under the expanded definition, individuals may now be considered \u201cgravely disabled\u201d if they have a severe substance use disorder, including\u00a0both a co-occurring mental health AND severe substance use condition\u00a0and are unable to provide for their basic personal needs, including food, clothing, and shelter. The revised criteria also incorporate considerations related to personal safety and necessary medical care.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: medium;\">\u201cThe county-wide implementation of Senate Bill 43 is a positive step for providing hope and wellbeing to some of our most vulnerable and highest-risk Los Angeles County residents,\u201d said LACDMH Director Lisa H. Wong, Psy.D.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: medium;\">\u201cSenate Bill 43 is an opportunity to support the diverse needs of our residents,\u201d said Dr. Barbara Ferrer, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.Ed., Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. \u201cWe look forward to working with our partners at the Department of Mental Health to ensure we provide connections to lifesaving services to the vulnerable people we serve.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: medium;\">LACDMH and Public Health have already partnered to increase public awareness and education for the upcoming conservatorship law changes. The departments have launched a dedicated\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/links-1.govdelivery.com\/CL0\/https:%2F%2Fdmh.lacounty.gov%2Fsb-43%2F\/1\/0100019b2d880bc6-f4d45b50-87e1-48eb-a18e-a59b9c0cf9fd-000000\/6UjF5CZekcHv0FqmnXWxoaW58QRhju_rIXQz3m68_xo=436\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/links-1.govdelivery.com\/CL0\/https:%252F%252Fdmh.lacounty.gov%252Fsb-43%252F\/1\/0100019b2d880bc6-f4d45b50-87e1-48eb-a18e-a59b9c0cf9fd-000000\/6UjF5CZekcHv0FqmnXWxoaW58QRhju_rIXQz3m68_xo%3D436&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1766081853029000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3KvLwUJjcUnGkTT7r40Njp\">webpage<\/a>\u00a0with downloadable materials, social media outreach and community presentations to inform the public of these changes.\u00a0Materials are available in a variety of threshold languages, including English, Spanish, Korean, Armenian, Tagalog, and traditional and simplified Chinese.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: medium;\">Senate Bill 43 passed in 2023 as part of a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/links-1.govdelivery.com\/CL0\/https:%2F%2Fwww.gov.ca.gov%2F2023%2F10%2F10%2Fmodernizing-conservatorship-law-sb43%2F\/1\/0100019b2d880bc6-f4d45b50-87e1-48eb-a18e-a59b9c0cf9fd-000000\/zWuZGAIkbRPeeb8dRoMF6T77Du_rIjWw21LARr321Nw=436\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/links-1.govdelivery.com\/CL0\/https:%252F%252Fwww.gov.ca.gov%252F2023%252F10%252F10%252Fmodernizing-conservatorship-law-sb43%252F\/1\/0100019b2d880bc6-f4d45b50-87e1-48eb-a18e-a59b9c0cf9fd-000000\/zWuZGAIkbRPeeb8dRoMF6T77Du_rIjWw21LARr321Nw%3D436&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1766081853029000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2gBmeyE2s874Lnx7wFIkcM\">statewide effort<\/a>\u00a0to modernize California\u2019s mental health and substance use disorder services. It\u00a0amends the LPS Act to provide expanded care to individuals facing mental health and severe substance use challenges.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LOS ANGELES, CA\u00a0\u2014 On January 1,&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ca-local","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=78083"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78084,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78083\/revisions\/78084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=78083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=78083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=78083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}