It is a tremendous crisis in our county. Mental health can only deal with the severe and persistently mentally ill. They are preety much able to handle crisis calls and that is about it. We did have a noted community based program that was defunded. It was operated through our 10 family resource centers. There were countless cases of people who were gently assisted from homelessness and drug abuse to independence and functionality by para professionals.
What happens with a 5150 -danger to self or others, is that the cops bring them in to the hospital ER. They have to sit with them as there are no quiet safe rooms anymore. We don’t have a detox facility to place them in either. The crisis mental health workers can’t do an assessment until the “clients” come down from whatever drug they are on. The hospital won’t accept them, so a cop is taken off the street to sit with them until they are sober and can be assessed. Then they are likely sent to an in-patient facility at tax payers’ expense.
The loss of treatment dollars makes money spent on extremely expensive hospitalization even more certain. The state wants to “realign” all responsibility for mental health patients back to the county. Our county wants to give it back to the state. It just is not working.
You bet...Ya see people standing on the corners arguing with telephone poles, and no one even notices anymore.