Our Priorities
Success in Action: The Marin Model
Marin County has already formally adopted a Board-approved Family Partnership Policy. This model proves that family inclusion is not only possible but practical. We are leveraging the Marin foundation to ensure every county in California recognizes the family’s right to be heard.
Our #1 Legislative Priority: Establishing Clinical Accountability
Senate Bill 1016 (The Continuum of Care Act) represented the California Chapter of the National Shattering Silence Coalition’s highest legislative priority this year. While our broader mandate targets the systemic Standard of Neglect across all 58 California counties, SB 1016 was our primary legislative vehicle to intercept and dismantle a specific, deadly failure point: the CARE Court Dismissal Void. It mandated that if a CARE Court participant is unsuccessful due to the absolute severity of their neurobiological illness, the court cannot simply drop the case and abandon them—it must refer them for a clinical LPS evaluation.
In the 2025-2026 legislative cycle, SB 1016 passed the Senate and successfully made it through its policy committees. The Assembly Appropriations Committee placed it on the Suspense File and ultimately did not release it for a floor vote. That effectively ended SB 1016 for this legislative session but there are already plans in the works to revive it for the 2026-2027 cycle. Everyone who called the legislators to support this bill made a difference. We look forward to working with our members to enhance Care Court so that it is not a dead end for some but a path forward for all.
Ultimately, by moving the bar from "waiting for danger" to "responding to medical necessity," we are building a California where life-saving psychiatric treatment is delivered early in a clinical setting, not at the end of a police encounter.
California’s CARE Court is failing the Gravely Disabled population. When a petition is dismissed because an individual is "too sick to realize they need treatment," the system simply walks away. SB 1016 changes the mandate, ensuring that a court dismissal is a referral for a clinical LPS evaluation, not a death sentence on the street.
California’s mental health system is currently defined by a "Standard of Neglect." We are shifting the landscape from clinical abandonment to a system of Medical Accountability. Our priorities are the architectural blueprints for a more humane California where treatment is a right, not a gamble.