Merced County Department of Mental Health

The Marie Green Psychiatric Center is a 16-bed inpatient facility constructed in 1995. The facility is clean, modern, and well equipped.

This facility provides Medi Cal covered mental health services as mandated under the California Welfare and Institutions Code. Services include assessment, treatment for acute psychiatric problems, and brief total psychiatric care . Under 2002-2003 GrandJuryReport -13- California Welfare and Institutions Code 5150 a person may be detained involuntarily at this facility for 72 hours for evaluation and treatment of mental disorders.

The staff consists of nurses, mental health workers, counselors, a social worker, a contracted doctor, and the site coordinator.

Five nurses work on various shifts in a twenty-four hour period.

Extended inpatient care is contracted with Merced Manor and a California State Hospital for individuals with serious mental illness .

No patient deaths have occurred at this facility.

Food is _prepared at the Sandy Mush Correctional facility and transported to the center.

The patients' clothes are laundered on site . Children's System of Care

This department moved in January of 2003 from a facility (located at 380 E . 13' Street in Merced) that provided outpatient services for both adults and children. That facility now serves outpatient adults only. The move was primarily due to overcrowded conditions but also served to separate the location of services for outpatient adults and outpatient children. The facility at the new location is clean, provides privacy for client consultation, is adequate for the number of clients currently served, and is located in close proximity to a Merced County Transit has stop.

Clients continued to be served during the time the facility at the new location was being organized and readied for staff

The Children's System of Care provides mental health services for Medi-Cal beneficiaries as mandated by the California Welfare and Institutions Code . A small percentage of the clients served have private insurance. Ages eligible to be served at this outpatient facility are birth to 21 . Average ages served are nine through sixteen. Eight hundred clients are served yearly. Inpatient care for children is contracted with a Group Home pursuant to California Welfare and Institutions Code 5670-5676.5.

Services available include assessment ; individual, family, and group therapy; case management, medication support, and Therapeutic Behavior Services (T.B.S.) which is a short term one-on-one service for fully covered Medi-Cal beneficiaries. 2002-2003 GrandJuryReport -14-

The staff consists of one child psychiatrist, one nurse, two psychologists, ten clinicians, ten mental health workers, seven clerical support employees, one educational psychologist (contracted through the Merced County Office of Education), two probation officers (contracted through the Merced County Probation Department), one child welfare social worker, two managers, and the coordinator.

The caseload for each clinician is fifty to seventy-five clients. These caseloads are shared by the mental health workers who do the field work (home and school visits).

Children are referred. by schools within the county, the Merced County Probation Department, and the Merced County Department of Human Resources .

Children's System of Care partners with schools, Child Protective Services, Merced County Probation Department, Central Valley Regional Center, and Family Service Center.

The allocation for children's services is approximately 25% of the Merced County Department of Mental Health budget. Grant monies in the amount of $400,000 accounted for about one fourth of the 2002-2003 budget for Children's System of Care. COMMENDATION The staff at Children's System of Care is commended for the capable handling of client services during the process of organizing the facility at the new location . The facility is well organized for the efficient use of available space . 2002-2003 Grand JuryReport