The Reiner Conservatorship: How California's Mental Health System Forces Impossible Choices

A judge declared Nick Reiner "gravely disabled" in 2020. Licensed fiduciary Steven Baer took control of his treatment decisions. Nick could be forced into a locked psychiatric facility against his will. The Reiners obtained the most powerful legal tool California offers families dealing with severe mental illness. It lasted one year. Four years later, both parents are dead.

Here's what the law actually does: if a family provides food, clothing, and shelter for a mentally ill loved one, that person may no longer qualify as "gravely disabled." The conservatorship can expire not because the patient improved—but because lo...