A county vote on a state conservatorship expansion law got lots of attention from local hospitals, activists and San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria a couple years ago.

Hospitals warned that if the county immediately enacted SB 43, which aimed to make more people eligible for short-term involuntary holds and conservatorships, patients would overwhelm local emergency rooms. Supervisors ultimately decided to punt for a year despite protests from Gloria and some mental health advocates.

So what’s happened since the county implemented the state law in January? Our Lisa Halverstadt found that there hasn’t been a flood of new patients into local hospitals – yet.

County data shows involuntary holds appeared to actually trended down the first few months of this year and that longer-term conservatorship

See Full Page