Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/mental-health/)
OC’s top elected officials had nothing to say Tuesday when they officially received a report showing jumps in children going to the emergency room for mental illness crises and suicide attempts.
The rate at which children were hospitalized for serious mental illnesses rose 87 percent over a nine year period, according to the annual Conditions of Children in Orange County report.
Plans call for mental health and drug addiction treatment programs to be available to all county residents, regardless of who their insurance provider is, which officials said would be the first facility in the nation to do so.
Orange County jails could widen their funding to treat inmates with mental illnesses while they’re incarcerated, under a bill proposed by California State Senator Tom Umberg (D – Santa Ana).
Last year, as county officials were hauled into federal court over a shortage of homeless shelters, Voice of OC reported the stockpiled mental health funds had reached $186 million beyond the reserves.
One of OC’s next homeless shelters could be headed for the affluent south county suburbs, the judge warns after citing a lack of progress by elected officials to create a mental health shelter.
Telecare Corp. has repeatedly declined to comment on complaints it failed to provide health treatment it was supposed to, didn’t clean dirty rooms at a facility it was overseeing, and unnecessarily escalated a situation with a patient into a physical confrontation.
Matt Holzmann, vice chair for Orange County’s Mental Health Board, talks about the unique opportunity facing public officials in Orange County to create a national funding and programming model for mental health programming at every spectrum, from those facing an immediate crisis, to those in need of permanent supportive housing.
The proposed mental health center is seen by advocates and officials as a major step toward addressing a severe shortage of mental health service options in Orange County. There was no word Tuesday on when services will start at the property.
The recommendations are aimed at diverting mentally ill people from jails into treatment, which county officials say would improve public safety by reducing crime, while also saving taxpayer dollars.