Introduction : the other Magna Carta -- Conservatorship continuum -- Care and coercion under conservatorship -- Reform -- Conclusion : beyond miracles.
Summary:
"In the city of Los Angeles, where homelessness is visible in the form of people and their belongings like shopping carts and sprouting clusters of temporary housing, the gravely disabled are easy to overlook. These are people who, defined by the California Welfare and Institutions Code, are unable to take care of their basic needs due mental disorder. In the United States there is a patchwork of state agencies that deal with the precarities associated with the effects of mental illness, which largely respect the wishes of the sufferers, providing them with latitude to make choices about their individual welfare. There are times, however, where the results of mental health on an individual's well being is so dire that a Public Guardian is required to make fundamental life choices for a person, such as where they live, how they spend their money, and what medical treatment they will be given. This is called a conservatorship. In Gravely Disabled, Alex V. Barnard takes the reader through complex system of conservatorship in the state of California. Conservatorship is by no means taken lightly nor is it easy to establish. It requires the deliberate efforts of state officials, families, and medical professionals to mandate people into conservatorship. Civil liberties campaigners, survivors of forced treatment, and clinicians often work in opposition to keep people out of it. What both sides agree on is that this is a life-or-death struggle. With this in mind, Barnard offers a thorough and sensitive portrait of the process of conservatorship, including what happens to get to the establishment of a conservatorship, what happens when one is established, and how this imperfect system can be reformed"-- Provided by publisher.
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