Yes, birmingplumb, after the passage of Prop 13 (1978), CA counties began releasing their mental health patients en masse, some severely so, and provided walk-up windows in a handful of locations for them to present their ID cards and obtain their medications. For example, SD County Psych Hospital at that time severely downsized their scope and mission. This worked fine, as long as the former patient had the presence of mind to keep lining up periodically to refill their prescriptions. Sadly, the rest got lost to the streets.

Being a former bureaucrat myself, I have a few suggestions for you:

Contact the SDRC to find out the procedure you need to go thru to get him the help he needs:

http://sdrc.org/services/services-for-adults/

http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/hhsa/programs/ssp/county_medical_services/

http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/hhsa/facilities/central/central_adult_mental_health_and_vocational_svcs.html

http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/hhsa/facilities/central/southeast_mental_health_center.html

Here are some South County facilities (group homes and adult daycare) which may contract with county programs. I KNOW the participants are kept busy during the day and also go out in groups on the bus quite often because I see them in their well-managed groups.

The first link below states is has 1/3 severe developmentally-disabled residents (doesn’t sound like your son but not sure). They all have limited beds.

http://www.calqualitycare.org/providers/developmentally-disabled/090000139.aspx?cat=2

http://www.grouphomesonline.com/det/casa_nuestra-chula_vista

The Arc of San Diego has three locations:

http://ca.hubbiz.com/chula-vista/mental-retardation-developmentally-disabled-serviceshttp://companies.findthecompany.com/l/19923776/Corte-Maria-Group-Home-Inc-in-Chula-Vista-CA

Perhaps if your could qualify for Medi-Cal, he can get a referral to a public defender (NOT criminal but mental-health atty) who can process a conservatorship for him (based upon his CMH record) and get him admitted into a (hopefully permanent) group home who will keep him on his meds. I know a couple of people who retired from the MH dept of the public defender’s office (1 atty and 1 clerk). I’ll try to get a hold of either or both them this week and find out the procedure for your son to qualify for one.

Maybe he can do all of the above simultaneously to an application for Medi-Cal. I honestly don’t know how well the wheel works anymore due to all the budget cuts in recent years.

http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/hhsa/programs/ssp/medi-cal_program/

He can apply here:

http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/hhsa/facilities/south/south_region_center.html

The first step is that you or another relative needs to bring your son into a family resource center of the HHSA (if they haven’t already done so) and help him make application to CMS or Medi-Cal (preferably Medi-Cal, if he’s qualified). Good luck, birmingplumb.