Based in Kentfield, CA, Stephen Raffle, MD, is a board certified forensic psychiatrist and Independent Medical Examiner who has conducted numerous evaluations and provided other services. One area of expert consultation is with legal professionals and other decision-makers in California and beyond on psychological impairment issues and conservatorships.
In California, a legal distinction exists which separates a probate conservatorship from a health care conservatorship; i.e., an LPS Conservatorship, which gives an adult (conservator) the responsibility for overseeing the comprehensive medical/mental treatment of an adult who has a serious mental illness (conservatee).
A conservatorship is a court-ordered substitution whereby the court appoints one or more conservators to manage the finances or health care of another person who is unable to exercise agency over his or her own affairs. A psychiatric evaluation must be made to determine whether an individual is mentally impaired to that extent.
Several questions are considered during a health care conservatorship evaluation. If an individual is found to be unable to make certain daily life decisions, the court will appoint a conservator to substitute judgment for the area of impairment in the event that the individual has not already made arrangements regarding power of attorney.
