Garden Grove is the latest Orange County city to ditch mental health services provider Be Well OC after parent nonprofit Mind OC told city leaders it can no longer financially uphold its end of the contract.

The shift away from Mind OC’s programming comes amid a yearslong legal battle with the County of Orange amid disputes over which entity owns the two mental health campuses they built together and questions over who can offer services there. 

After a county audit found that Mind OC’s Be Well program had multiple issues at their Orange campus, county supervisors pulled their contracts to provide mental health services in 2024, leading Mind OC to sue the county alleging a breach of contract. 

[Read: Is Orange County’s Flagship Mental Health Program Finished?]

Editors’ Note: This dispatch is part of the Voice of OC Collegiate News Service, working with student journalists to cover public policy issues across Orange County. If you would like to submit your own student media project related to Orange County civics or if you have any response to this work, contact admin@voiceofoc.org.

Now, the county operates the Orange facility while the Irvine branch remains shuttered as both sides continue to dispute who owns the properties in court. 

During their meeting on Aug. 25, Garden Grove City Council members unanimously voted to approve a $1.5 million first-year contract with nonprofit Healthcare In Action in an effort to begin phasing out Be Well’s services.

A majority of the cost will be covered by $1.1 million the city previously allocated for their contract with Be Well. The approval also included a $450,000 reappropriation from the city’s National Opioid Settlement fund to cover the rest of the new contract.

“If we don’t use it, we lose it,” Councilmember Joe DoVinh said at the late August meeting.

The city plans to run both agencies simultaneously under the supervision of the Garden Grove Police Department until Nov. 30, according to a staff presentation from the meeting. 

Two crews will be operating from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. to provide mobile mental health services. One crew is scheduled from Monday to Friday, while the other will work from Wednesday to Sunday.

After Nov. 30, Healthcare In Action is slated to operate solo under a city-led pilot program until March 2027.

During the meeting in August, Garden Grove city officials questioned some of the steps taken for the rollout of Healthcare In Action’s services.

Councilmember George Brietigam questioned why the two care teams’ shifts overlap at the same time from Wednesday to Friday.

“Wouldn’t it be prudent to have one of the units starting at 3 p.m. and going to 11 to give the p.m. watch guys some support as well?” Brietigam said.

“It looks like it’s a simple, no-cost solution that we could be exploring here.”

Councilmember Cindy Ngoc Tran spoke in support of a 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift, citing that this was a common issue for small businesses in the area sending in reports late at night.

“Sometimes when I called our team, they said we have to wait until the next day,” Tran said.

Timothy Throne, a project manager for the city’s economic development team, cited budget constraints as to why there’s only one shift timeframe planned during the transition, adding that these hours reflected peak activity hours according to data provided by Be Well.

“Caller data showed that beyond 6 p.m., there weren’t that many calls to dispatch in regard to homeless-related calls or even crisis calls,” Throne said at the meeting.

Councilmember Ariana Arestegui raised concerns about how the new contract will cost more than Be Well’s for less operating hours.

Be Well operated 18 hours a day when it was fully operational and had a $1.1 million annual contract with the city. 

Healthcare In Action will only operate eight hours a day for $1.5 million. 

Those costs are set to go down if Garden Grove decides to continue working with Healthcare In Action. After the first year, the annual contract could drop to $1.2 million.

Arestegui said providing mental health services is critical. 

“That is something that is at the top of my mind: making sure that we are addressing the needs of the community as much as possible.”