Title
Receive a presentation from the Health Department's Behavioral Health Bureau staff regarding availability of mobile crisis services throughout the County.
Report
RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the Board of Supervisors:
Receive a presentation from the Health Department's Behavioral Health Bureau staff regarding availability of mobile crisis services throughout the County.
SUMMARY/DISCUSSION:
Behavioral Health (BH) launched the County's first Mobile Crisis Team (MCT) services in November 2015 and the team remains operational to date. MCT services were disrupted in mid-March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and staff were reassigned to support other critical and essential services within BH. The MCT was reactivated in April 2021.
The MCT is staffed with licensed / licensed eligible clinicians and are based out of the Salinas, South County and Peninsula regions of the County. Program hours of operation are Wednesday through Saturday from 12:30 pm to 10:00 pm and every other Tuesday from 1:30 pm to 10:00 pm.
BH, in partnership with our contracted services provider Seneca Family of Agencies (Seneca), also developed the Mobile Response Team (MRT) for Children and Youth which launched during the pandemic in July 2020. MRT's focus is on children and youth ages 0-21 and their families. MCT and MRT communicate and refer to each other as clinically appropriate.
The MCT provides law enforcement and other treatment providers with specialized assistance in responding to individuals and families in crisis. They collaborate to recognize the signs of psychiatric distress; work to de-escalate a mental health crisis, provide available resources and link people with voluntary outpatient services and/or treatment as appropriate. The team seeks to provide the support to stabilize the situation in the community to avoid unnecessary hospitalizations and divert from emergency resources (hospital/jail) when appropriate while providing the linkage to ongoing ...
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