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Cal. WIC § 5520

This is the official text of Cal. WIC § 5520, part of California’s Welfare and Institutions Code — governs public social services, juvenile justice, and mental health/developmental disability services.

Not legal advice. This page reproduces the official text of a government statute for reference only. Laws change, and how a statute applies depends on your specific facts. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state.

Official statutory text

Each local mental health director shall appoint, or contract for the services of, one or more county patients’ rights advocates. The duties of these advocates shall include, but not be limited to, the following:

(a) To receive and investigate complaints from or concerning recipients of mental health services residing in licensed health or community care facilities regarding abuse, unreasonable denial or punitive withholding of rights guaranteed under the provisions of Division 5 (commencing with Section 5000).

(b) To monitor mental health facilities, services and programs for compliance with statutory and regulatory patients’ rights provisions.

(c) To provide training and education about mental health law and patients’ rights to mental health providers.

(d) To ensure that recipients of mental health services in all licensed health and community care facilities are notified of their rights.

(e) To exchange information and cooperate with the patients’ rights program.

This section does not constitute a change in, but is declarative of the existing law.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.