San Fernando Mom Gets Long-Awaited Conservatorship for Mentally Ill Son

by Maria Luisa Torres

City of San Fernando resident Gina Perez is hopeful about the long-awaited conservatorship recently granted for her son Joseph Zamora, who has been homeless and battling schizophrenia and substance use disorder for many years. (SFVS/el Sol Photo/Maria Luisa Torres)

After years of venturing out nearly every day to find her unhoused mentally ill son on the streets of the Northeast San Fernando Valley to give him food and clean clothes, Gina Perez is breathing a bit easier these days. 

In August, her son Joseph Lee Zamora, 44, was admitted into the in-patient behavioral health unit at Mission Community Hospital in Panorama City on a temporary mental health conservatorship due to his decades-long battle with schizophrenia and substance use disorder. 

Zamora’s dual diagnosis has contributed to erratic behavior and a string of arrests, including for trespassing on public property and disorderly conduct. His harrowing condition – which causes him to hear voices and feel the urge to turn them off by self-medicating with illegal drugs – is further complicated by “anosognosia,” which makes a person unable to recognize they have a health problem. As a result, he has repeatedly refused much-needed treatment and medication.

Dealing with a cycle of schizophrenic episodes and substance abuse, Zamora preferred to live on the streets, explained Perez. She regularly drove around looking for him at his usual spots, often following a full day of work in the scholarship office at California State University, Northridge. 

For now, she’s relieved that her son is housed and making slow but somewhat steady progress. 

“I’m just thankful that he’s safe. He’s not harming himself and he’s not out in the elements, especially now that the weather is starting to get cold again,” said Perez, who lives in the City of San Fernando. “He’s been eating – he’s gained weight, which is good – [and] he’s been taking his medication.”

Perez said she pursued conservatorship – which was transitioned from temporary to a full year in October through the Office of the County Counsel – to try to save his life. Previous efforts and countless consequences over the years have failed or only helped in the short term, including involuntary 72-hour 5150 psychiatric holds, court-mandated stays in drug and mental health treatment centers, several stints in jail and even a previous full-year conservatorship in 2019.

Last year, she was hoping the new CARE (Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment) Court would offer a solution without conservatorship, but she soon realized it wouldn’t help her son. Launched in Los Angeles County last December, CARE Court oversees court-ordered treatment for people with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, but it is 100% voluntary; people have to willingly participate. And in Zamora’s case, “nothing with him [was] voluntary,” said Perez.

“Right now he knows he’s taking medication to help [quiet the] voices, and although I wouldn’t say it’s voluntary, because it’s required for him to do so, even with a conservatorship they still truly can’t force him to take it, so he is choosing to do it,” she added. “While I know there’s no cure, as long as he’s taking medication he’s not plagued by wanting to drown out the voices.”

These days, instead of spending hours trying to track down her son on street corners and in shopping centers across San Fernando and Sylmar – or endlessly worrying for days or weeks at a time whenever Zamora disappeared from the area – she gets to visit him daily. For the time being, he only wants to see his mom, and they talk and interact a bit more with each passing day.

“He doesn’t even want his sister to go see him [and] I think that’s because there’s still a lot of shame that he feels,” said Perez. “But he wants to hear about her and about other people, too.”

Helping Other Families

As Zamora continues receiving care and awaiting a transfer to another facility for more comprehensive treatment, Perez is completing a 13-week course in mental health ministry offered by the Office of Life, Justice and Peace of the Catholic Archdiocese of LA. She said she hopes to take what she learns – combined with her personal experiences as a tireless advocate for her son – to start a mental health ministry group at a local parish.

“I’m taking the course to help me be better informed on my journey with Joseph and so I can share the information with other families,” said Perez. “I’ve been immersed in my son’s illness for a long time, and there are probably a lot of people out there who are just starting out.”

Because there is so much shame and stigma associated with mental illness, Perez said she believes there are many others like herself – who have a loved one coping with mental illness – who might be reluctant to seek help or who simply don’t know where to turn for answers.

“I want to offer them a place to be among other families facing the same challenges,” she added, noting that some people might be more open to participating in a faith-based setting. “They might be able to trust somebody from their church versus an outside organization.”

Hope for the Future

Perez is hopeful her son will continue improving. So far, he appears much calmer than he was during his last hospitalization when he was “clamoring to get out,” she recounted, noting that the next treatment facility will provide more services in a less restrictive setting to aid his recovery.

“The judge said, ‘He’s 44 – he has a whole life ahead of him. I don’t want him to be placed in a facility where he can’t learn to thrive,’” said Perez, who wholeheartedly agrees with the judge.

“There’s a lot of work that he has ahead of him to become functional in society again,” continued Perez. She said when Zamora’s one-year conservatorship ends, the court can choose to renew it, opt for a lesser level of care or decide he is ready to be mainstreamed. “I keep on reminding him that it’s going to be up to him to want to do the work in order to take it to the next level.” 

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San Fernando Mom Gets Long-Awaited Conservatorship for Mentally Ill Son