The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) publishes numerous Guides to help individuals and families navigate the mental health system of care nationally. NAMI guides include:

Navigating the Criminal Justice System (2026)

Parents and Teachers as Allies (2025)

By Youth, For Youth: Recommendations for the Youth Mental Health Crisis (2025)

Navigating a Mental Health Crisis (2025)

Scaling Coordinated Specialty Care for First Episode Psychosis: Insights from a National Impact Model (2024)

Navigating a Mental Health Crisis at Work (2024)

Making the Workplace Work for All: Enabling Employee Success (2024)

Schizophrenia and Psychosis Lexicon Guide (2023)

Circle of Care: A Guidebook for Mental Health Caregivers (2017) 

The Treatment Advocacy Center (TAC) is a national organization focused on the law and policy of severe mental illness treatment. It offers a Helpline staffed by trained advocates and navigation resources for families. TAC resources include:

TAC Helpline phone (703) 951-9760

Find Help and SMI Resources

Look Up Your State's SMI Resources

Schizophrenia and Psychosis Resource Center

SMI One-Pagers

What is Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT)?

The California Shattering Silence Coalition (CA NSSC) is the California arm of the National Shattering Silence Coalition, an advocacy organization focused on serious mental illness policy. It offers California-specific tools organized around the state's 58-county system to help families navigate care. Resources include:

Family Support, including a 58-county directory, crisis tracker, navigation guides, and peer support

See the NAMI guide Navigating the Criminal Justice System and Navigating a Mental Health Crisis (2025) for details seeking help for a mental health crisis.

Specialized crisis lines are available for veterans, youth, LGBTQ+ callers, tribal communities, postpartum support, elder support, and others.

See NAMI’s Navigating a Mental Health Crisis for information.

Supplying health information

Even when hospitals cannot disclose information to family members due to privacy laws, families can still provide important medical and behavioral history to providers.

Learn about California’s Form 1424 from NAMI Contra Costa, which allows families and other interested parties to supply medical professionals with information about their loved one’s history of symptoms.

Discharge questions

Patients may sometimes be discharged even when family members or others remain concerned about the person's wellbeing. Hospitals must balance patient rights, clinical assessments, legal standards, available resources, and emergency system demands when making discharge decisions.

There are questions families may consider asking before discharge. Hospitals are not required to answer all of these questions, and some answers may be limited by privacy law or clinical judgment. The list is offered as a starting point for what families have found useful to ask:

• What diagnosis, medications, and follow-up care were arranged?

• Who is responsible for care coordination after discharge?

• What county resources were contacted, and was the patient screened for housing?

• Was conservatorship evaluated? Is the patient eligible for a CARE Court referral?

• What symptoms should trigger emergency return, and what crisis line should be used?

• Can the family provide additional history or records to the care team?

If you have questions about discharge from the hospital or long term care facilities, see these links.

The criminal justice system is complex and program offerings vary from county to county. See NAMI’s guide on Navigating the Criminal Justice System.

State and federal privacy laws can sometimes limit what medical care providers can share with others without patient consent, but no law limits what you can tell the care provider.

For details on California Privacy Laws, see Disability Rights of California’s article Confidentiality of Mental Health Records/Information.

People with untreated schizophrenia spectrum or other qualifying psychotic disorders, including bipolar 1 with psychosis, may qualify for CARE Court proceedings under California law. Families considering whether CARE Court may apply to a loved one's situation can review the official California Courts CARE Act information page, consult with a California-licensed attorney familiar with the CARE Act, or contact a self-help clinic where available.

• Filing a CARE Petition

• Self-help centers may be offered in your county superior court.

• California law includes additional court related evaluation procedures beyond short term emergency detention statutes such as WIC 5150.

• Availability and implementation of WIC 5200 procedures may depend on county practices, court procedures, and local agency policies. Some counties rarely use the process or may use different terminology.

  Families may contact county behavioral health departments and consider asking:

  • whether WIC 5200 procedures are utilized

  • where requests are directed

  • whether forms exist

  • what screening process is used

  • what are alternative options when 5150 holds have not been sufficient to access care

  • For more information, see our paper: The Lost Legal Pathway to Mental Health Care: WIC 5200

California County Behavioral Health Departments are generally responsible for:

• public behavioral health services

• crisis response systems

• conservatorship investigations

• CARE Court coordination

• outpatient and inpatient treatment programs

• providing access to mental health care for Medi-Cal beneficiaries

• County Mental Health Plan Access Lines

LPS Conservatorships

LPS conservatorships are court ordered mental health conservatorships used in limited circumstances for people who may be gravely disabled due to mental disorder. Only designated county agencies are authorized to initiate LPS conservatorship investigations and referrals. See CA State Association of PA/PG/PC’s LPS conservatorship law discussion.

Probate Conservatorships

Probate conservatorships are different from LPS conservatorships and are generally used for people who need help managing personal or financial affairs.

Probate conservatorships generally do not authorize involuntary psychiatric treatment or placement unless additional statutory findings are made related specifically to major neurocognitive disorders.

• Self-help centers may be offered in your county superior court.

• Alternatives to conservatorship that families sometimes explore include supported decision-making, powers of attorney, advance healthcare directives, and trust arrangements. The court self-help site has more information (see court self-help site)

• Some people may qualify for services through California’s developmental disability system.

• Regional Centers provide services and support for eligible people with developmental disabilities. Services may include:

  • case management

  • supported living services

  • respite care

  • behavioral services

  • employment support

  • housing assistance

• Limited Probate Conservatorships

Understanding system limits: California behavioral health systems involve multiple independent agencies operating under different laws, resources, and responsibilities. Families may receive different answers from hospitals, counties, law enforcement, courts, or service providers because each entity operates under different authority and standards.

• Counties manage public behavioral health systems

  • LPS Designated Facilities

  • Behavioral Health Departments

  • Medi-Cal Office

• Hospitals make clinical and legal determinations regarding admission, treatment, and discharge.

• Courts oversee CARE Court and conservatorships

• Law enforcement (911) responds to immediate safety concerns

• Regional Centers support developmental disabilities

• In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS)

• Housing support programs

• BenefitsCal (food resources)

• California Medi-Cal Information

• Social Security Disability Benefits

Some California communities and nonprofit organizations operate voluntary reunification programs that help unhoused people reconnect with family or trusted support systems.

• San Francisco’s Journey Home

• Miracle Messages (multi-state)

• City of San Diego’s Family Reunification Program

• Grave Disability Workgroup of CA (articles and resources)

• Foundation for Life (survivor-led organization)

• NAMI California

• Housing that Heals (mom on a mission)

• Families Advocating for the Severely Mentally Ill (FASMI of Alameda County)

• National Shattering Silence Coalition (NSSC)

• Treatment Advocacy Center (TAC)

• Psych/Armor (support for service members, caregivers, and their families)

• SAMHSA Behavioral Health Resources