LACDMH and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH) recently launched a webpage dedicated to providing more information to residents, clinicians, law enforcement, and other stakeholders about Senate Bill 43, a new law that expands the definition of “gravely disabled” under California’s Lanterman-Petris-Short (LPS) Act.
Considered the biggest change to California conservatorship law in more than 50 years, in addition to mental health disorders, the new definition of grave disability adds individuals with a severe substance use disorder or a co-occurring mental health disorder and severe substance use disorder who are unable to provide for their basic personal needs for food, clothing, shelter, and added considerations around personal safety or necessary medical care.
To collaboratively launch Senate Bill 43, LACDMH and DPH partnered to enhance and increase public awareness and education of the upcoming changes through downloadable materials, social media posts, and community outreach presentations. Materials are available in several threshold languages, including English, Spanish, Korean, Armenian, Tagalog, and Traditional and Simplified Chinese.
LACDMH and DPH are hosting community education events with Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART), ADA support and ASL, Korean and Spanish translations. The sessions are hosted by LACDMH’s Service Area Leadership Teams (SALT) and Underserved Cultural Communities (UsCC). The public is invited to learn more about Senate Bill 43 and its impacts by attending any of these community meetings listed on the Senate Bill 43 website.
