Title: Mental Health Conservatorship: A Family Guide – BrightQuest Treatment Centers
Headings: Mental Health Conservatorship: A Family Guide
Mental Health Conservatorship: A Family Guide
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What Is a Mental Health Conservatorship?
How Does a Conservatorship Work?
Establishing a Conservatorship
I’m a Conservator, Now What?
The Financial Side of Conservatorship
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When and How to Intervene

Content: Medications. Mental health treatment is a long road, and conservatorships and long-term care are never the first choices. But when mental health issues are so severe that individuals are unable to hold down a job or follow an educational path and have difficulty with basic daily living activities, they can be the best options. What Is a Mental Health Conservatorship? Before you can determine what’s best for your loved one, though, it’s important to understand conservatorships and just how they work. “A mental health (LPS) conservatorship makes one adult (called the conservator) responsible for a mentally ill adult (called the conservatee),” according to the Superior Court of California. It’s important to note that these conservatorships are only for adults with mental illnesses listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The most common illnesses covered by a conservatorship include serious, biological brain disorders like: Schizophrenia
Bipolar Disorder
Schizoaffective Disorder
Clinical Depression
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
LPS conservatorships (named for the California legislators who wrote the LPS Act in the 1970s, Lanterman, Petris, and Short) are not for people with organic brain disorders, brain trauma, retardation, alcohol or drug addiction, or dementia, unless they also have one of the serious brain disorders listed in the DSM. How Does a Conservatorship Work?