The conservatorship program is growing a partnership with Disability Rights California’s Office of Clients’ Rights Advocacy (OCRA). The Department recently contracted with OCRA to conduct visits to conserved people. OCRA created a special conservatorship unit called PULSE (Peers Understanding, Listening, Supporting and Educating) to complete these regular visits. PULSE will help each person conserved by the Department understand conservatorships, what their conservator can and cannot do, and the rights they retain.
“This new collaboration is an opportunity to share information with conserved regional center clients on alternatives to conservatorship like Supported Decision Making,” said Shannon Cogan, Disability Rights California’s Associate Executive Director for Individual Rights. “Our goals are to reduce the number of people subject to conservatorship and to help people with intellectual and developmental disabilities live more self-determined lives.”
This partnership adds another layer of protection and oversight, and promotes person-centered planning, support, and advocacy.
What is the Conservatorship Program?
Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities are presumed to be competent and able to make their own decisions with and without support. The individual’s diagnosis and communication challenges should not be presumed as a lack of competency to make decisions.
A conservatorship can be created if a judge decides an adult who is served by a regional center:
- Can’t take care of themselves
- Needs someone else to make decisions for their health, safety and well-being
- And there are no other ways to help the adult make decisions
The Department rarely is the conservator for a regional center client. The Department only accepts a conservatorship as a last resort. As of July 1, 2025, the Department is the conservator for roughly 350 people, out of 480,000 people receiving regional center services.
The Department’s Conservatorship Team
The Conservatorship team has grown from a single staff person, to improve the Department’s capacity to provide more robust oversight and individualized support to the regional centers. The team members include:
- One Manager
- Two northern liaisons
- Two southern liaisons
- One staff services analyst
- Two attorneys
- One legal assistant
- One nurse
This team visits and checks on people conserved by the Department, follows up on legal issues, and responds to medical concerns. Recently, its work led to the safe relocation of a person from a skilled nursing facility to a less restrictive and more appropriate home.
Get More Information about Conservatorships
The new conservatorship webpage makes information more accessible to families, service providers, and the public, including:
- Alternatives to conservatorship
- A conservatorship information package
- Conservatorship resources
- An overview of the Department’s conservatorships