A nearly $1 million dollar grant over the next three years will expand treatment options for people experiencing mental health crisis.
The funding, from the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission’s SB 82 Triage grant, will make it possible for Humboldt County Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) Mental Health clinicians to address mental health crises in the field and prevent hospitalization.
In the past, when DHHS’s psychiatric hospital, Sempervirens, or its Crisis Stabilization Unit (CSU) reached capacity, patients waiting to be admitted on the recommendation of law enforcement or local emergency department physicians would have to stay in an emergency room until a bed became available.
In July 2016, DHHS launched a Mobile Crisis Response pilot program that freed up Mental Health clinicians to go to local emergency departments to provide mental health assessments to patients in need. Five months later, due to the success of the program, it was made permanent.
DHHS Mental Health Director Emi Botzler-Rodgers said the grant will fund additional personnel allowing for Mental Health to increase its responsiveness to people experiencing mental health crises in the community. It will also strengthen coordination with community partners including law enforcement, emergency room personnel and other service providers.
“It’s very exciting to have the opportunity to be able to respond as a team with the other key service providers working to support, stabilize and maintain health and well-being in Humboldt County,” she said. “There are so many people doing this very challenging work, so to be able to do it together and coordinate efforts is incredibly rewarding and much more efficient and effective.”
For more information about Mental Health services, visit humboldtgov.org/MentalHealth.
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