Sometimes, a person experiencing serious mental illness may refuse treatment, even when their symptoms are severe. When other engagements have not been successful, the Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) team works to connect these individuals with behavioral health services, with the goal of helping them accept voluntary care. 

For more information about, visit the AOT page. 

Passed in July 2023 the Community, Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Act created a new pathway to deliver mental health and substance use disorder services to individuals who are diagnosed with schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders who are substantially deteriorating and unlikely to survive safely in the community without supervision. 

The goal of the program is to prevent those with severe mental health disorders from entering into more restrictive conservatorships or incarceration. Families, clinicians, first responders, and others may begin the process by filing a petition with the Superior Court of Kern County to connect adults to court-ordered voluntary treatment.

For more information, please visit the CARE Act page. 

Homelessness is a complex issue with no one-size-fits-all solution that impacts everyone in our community, and there's no one-size-fits-all solution. However, there is hope. There's a collaborative effort in Kern to address homelessness and several agencies are committed to help our homeless residents improve their situations and reclaim their lives.  

Program Goals

A program extension of the KernBHRS Homeless Adult Team, the Kern Relational Outreach and Engagement Model (ROEM) program is a behavioral health outreach unit consisting of teams of professional and paraprofessional staff dedicated to addressing the needs of the homeless with severe behavioral health challenges.  It uses the ROEM to engage and provide services to homeless individuals who have mental illness and/or substance use disorders.

Extensive Outreach

Understanding that there are a lot of factors that can lead someone to homelessness, the program mixes heavy outreach and engagement efforts with field-based prevention and treatment strategies, including street psychiatry. Its mobile units allow staff to engage homeless individuals where they are to develop relationships and build trust. The goal is to engage and empower individuals and connect them to appropriate behavioral health treatment, community services and placement. 

Collaboration Efforts

The ROEM Team works in close partnership with:

• Shelter and housing providers
• Healthcare agencies
• Social services and local outreach teams

Contact ROEM Services

For more information on the ROEM program, please call (661) 868-1850.