California 5150 Hold for Minors: Criteria, Duration, and Parental Rights

In California, a 5150 hold for minors is an involuntary psychiatric detention of up to 72 hours, used when a child or adolescent is in a mental health crisis and voluntary treatment isn’t an option. Although families and even clinicians often call it a “5150,” the statute that actually governs minors is Welfare and Institutions Code Section 5585.50, part of the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act. The hold is a medical and legal intervention meant to stabilize the minor and decide what care comes next, not a punishment or a criminal action.¹

The Three Criteria That Must Be Met

A minor can be placed on an involuntary hold only when, as the result of a mental health disorder, they meet at least one of three criteria:

Danger to themselves, including suicidal statements, attempts, or serious self-harm.
Danger to others, meaning violent or threatening behavior that presents a real risk of physical harm.
Gravely disabled, meaning the minor cannot use the basic elements of life essential to health, safety, and development even when those resources are being supplied by someone else.²

That last criterion is where the minor standard diverges from the adult one. Adults are gravely disabled if they cannot provide food, clothing, or shelter for themselves. Children aren’t expected to provide those things independently, so the test becomes whether the minor can make use of what a caregiver provides. A teenager who refuses food, repeatedly flees shelter due to psychosis, or cannot function despite a stable home may meet this definition.

The statute is also clear about what does not qualify on its own: intellectual disability, epilepsy, substance abuse, and repeated antisocial behavior are not, by themselves, a mental disorder for hold purposes.² The condition has to arise from a mental health disorder.

The Voluntary Treatment Requirement

WIC 5585.50 adds a requirement that does not appear in the adult 5150 statute: the involuntary hold can only be initiated when “authorization for voluntary treatment is not available.”¹ In practice, the authorized professional must consider whether the minor’s parent or guardian could consent to a voluntary admission first. Only if the parent is unreachable, refuses to authorize care, or the minor otherwise cannot be admitted voluntarily does the involuntary hold proceed.

Who Can Place a Minor on a Hold

Only certain professionals have the legal authority to initiate the hold. Under WIC 5585.50, that group includes peace officers, staff of a county-designated evaluation facility, and other mental health professionals designated by the county.¹ The adult statute additionally lists mobile crisis team members.³

A parent cannot place their own child on an involuntary hold. If you believe your child is in crisis, the routes are calling 911, contacting the county mental health crisis line, or bringing the child to a psychiatric emergency facility where an authorized professional can make the assessment. That professional needs probable cause to believe the minor meets at least one of the three criteria. If probable cause rests on someone else’s statement and that statement is knowingly false, the person who made it can be sued.¹

Where the Minor Is Taken and How Long the Hold Lasts

Once the hold is initiated, the minor must go to a facility designated by the county and approved by the State Department of Health Care Services specifically for 72-hour treatment and evaluation of minors.¹ That’s usually a psychiatric hospital or a designated crisis stabilization unit rather than a general emergency room, and minors generally cannot be housed on the same ward as adults. The nearest approved facility isn’t necessarily the nearest hospital, and in some counties there may be a wait or a transfer to another county.

The maximum length is 72 hours. The clock starts when the minor is first detained, not when they arrive at the facility.⁴ The minor is in a locked setting for the duration. If, at any point before 72 hours are up, the clinical team decides the minor no longer meets any of the three criteria, the facility must release them. There is no requirement to hold anyone for the full period.

Parental Notification and Access to Information

The facility must make every effort to notify the minor’s parent or legal guardian as soon as possible after detention.¹ The statute says “every effort,” not “immediately,” so in chaotic situations notice can be delayed, but it cannot be skipped.

Parents keep the right to be involved in treatment. Under HIPAA, a parent is generally treated as the personal representative of a minor child and has access to the child’s health information, including medications, diagnoses, treatment plans, and session schedules. Psychotherapy notes are the exception. Those are the clinician’s private counseling notes and cannot be disclosed without authorization, even to a parent, outside limited situations like mandatory abuse reporting.⁵

Visitation is a right, but the treating team can restrict visits when they believe contact would interfere with the minor’s stabilization.

The Minor’s Rights During the Hold

Involuntary detention doesn’t strip a minor of civil rights. WIC 5325 lists protections that apply to every involuntarily held patient, and a parent cannot waive them.⁶ The facility must post these rights and explain them in a language the minor understands. They include:

Wearing their own clothes and keeping personal possessions, including toiletries.
Reasonable, confidential access to a telephone, and materials for writing and mailing letters.
Daily visitors, subject to clinical restrictions.
Refusing electroconvulsive therapy and psychosurgery.
Meeting with a patient advocate who has no clinical or administrative role at the facility.
Seeking legal representation and filing a writ of habeas corpus to challenge the detention at any time.

The facility also has to notify the county’s patients’ rights advocate within one working day of admission.

Medication Consent

Medication is where involuntary holds for minors get more complicated than for adults. As a rule, psychiatric medication cannot be given to a minor without parental consent. If the parent doesn’t consent, the medication is not given, unless there is a genuine psychiatric emergency involving an immediate safety threat.

When a parent consents but the minor refuses, a capacity hearing may be held. These are commonly called Riese hearings after the case that established the process. The original Riese case involved an adult, but the procedure is generally applied to minors, and some counties have adopted local court rules extending it explicitly. The hearing decides whether the minor has the capacity to make an informed decision about medication. If the minor is found to lack capacity, medication can be administered over their objection.

The rules change for foster children and dependent minors removed from parental custody. Only the juvenile court can authorize psychiatric medication in that situation. The treating psychiatrist files a formal request, anyone who disagrees can file an opposition, and the court has seven days to approve, deny, or set a hearing.

What Happens When the 72 Hours End

At the end of the hold period, one of three things happens:

The minor is released if the clinical team finds they no longer meet any of the three criteria. Under WIC 5585.57, the facility must develop an aftercare plan before discharge.
The minor transitions to voluntary inpatient treatment, if they’re willing to continue and the parent or guardian consents.
The facility certifies the minor for up to 14 additional days of intensive treatment under WIC 5250 if they continue to meet the criteria and are unable or unwilling to accept voluntary care.⁷

A 5250 certification isn’t automatic. The staff has to find that the minor still qualifies as dangerous or gravely disabled, and the minor is entitled to a certification review hearing within four days, with the right to counsel, to present evidence, and to question witnesses.⁷

The Five-Year Firearm Prohibition

Families often miss this consequence. Under California law, any person taken into custody on a 5150-type hold, assessed, and admitted to a designated facility as a danger to themselves or others is barred from owning or purchasing firearms for five years after release. The statute does not carve out an exception for minors. If it happens twice within one year, the prohibition becomes permanent.⁸

For a young person, the five-year clock can still be running when they reach the age to purchase a firearm. Someone subject to the prohibition can petition the superior court for relief, and the burden falls on the state to prove the person would not be safe. The prohibition applies only to holds based on danger to self or others; a hold based only on grave disability does not trigger it.⁹

Records and Confidentiality

A hold under 5585.50 is not a criminal matter and doesn’t create a criminal record. WIC 5328 restricts disclosure of information and records generated during mental health treatment, and the hold generally doesn’t appear on standard employment or school background checks.

It is reported to the California Department of Justice for firearm-prohibition purposes, and that information will surface on a firearms background check. The record also exists within the mental health system and could be relevant in later psychiatric evaluations or court proceedings. If the minor later applies for certain professional licenses, security clearances, or military service, questions about psychiatric hospitalization may come up, and truthful disclosure may be required even though the underlying records are sealed from casual access.

Who Pays for the Hold

Involuntary psychiatric care is expensive, and daily inpatient rates commonly run more than a thousand dollars. California’s county mental health system carries primary responsibility for crisis services, but the financial picture depends on coverage. Private insurance plans, under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, must cover psychiatric crisis services on terms comparable to medical and surgical benefits, and cannot impose more restrictive prior authorization on mental health admissions. For minors covered by Medi-Cal, the county’s managed care plan or Mental Health Plan typically covers involuntary stabilization services.

Families without insurance, or with high-deductible plans, can face significant out-of-pocket bills. If an unexpected bill arrives, contact the facility’s billing department and the county behavioral health department; county-funded services may be available based on income.

1
California Legislative Information. California Code WIC 5585.50
2
Justia Law. California Code WIC 5585.25
3
California Legislative Information. California Code WIC 5150
4
California Legislative Information. California Code WIC 5150
5
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. HIPAA Privacy Rule and Sharing Information Related to Mental Health
6
California Legislative Information. California Code WIC 5325
7
California Legislative Information. California Code WIC 5250
8
California Legislative Information. California Code WIC 8103
9
California Department of Justice. Firearms Prohibiting Categories