Orange County Grand Jury • 2014-2015

Orange County Mental Health:*

Published: May 21, 2015 20 pages

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⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.

⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.

Findings 6 findings

The County's Evaluation Treatment Services facility does not provide needed medical stabilization services such as those included in the Psychiatric Emergency Services model.

The current need and demand for involuntary psychiatric emergency services in South Orange County is not being met. Orange County Mental Health: Crisis Intervention Programs

The County has an insufficient number of psychiatric beds to provide in-patient care to mentally ill clients who are not able to be referred to less restrictive treatment.

Although a plan is in place at CHOC for an 18-bed unit to open in 2017, there are currently no psychiatric beds in Orange County for children under the age of 12.

The Mental Health Services Act Steering Committee has no direct representation from local designated private hospitals.

Given the language in the California Code of Regulations and the Welfare and Institutions Code regarding funding for involuntary treatment, the issue of using Mental Health Services Act funds for involuntary psychiatric clients who are gravely disabled or a danger to self or others, is unclear. RECOMMENDATIONS In accordance with California Penal Code Sections 933 and 933.05, the 2014- 2015 Grand Jury requires (or, as noted, requests) responses from each agency affected by the recommendations presented in this section. The responses are to be submitted to the Presiding Judge of the Superior Court. Based on its investigation titled "Orange County Mental Health: Crisis Intervention Programs", the 2014-2015 Orange County Grand Jury makes the following six recommendations: Continue with the planned expansion of the Evaluation Treatment Services

Recommendations 6

R1

facility in Santa Ana and convert it to a Psychiatric Evaluation Services model of care that includes basic medical services currently provided 5150 clients by private hospital emergency departments. (F.1.)
R2

Add an additional Evaluation Treatment Services facility to be located in South Orange County and initiate substantive, concrete efforts to do so in Fiscal Year 2015-2016. (F.2.)
R3

Continue efforts to locate and secure commitments for additional psychiatric beds in Orange County and nearby adjacent counties in order to increase the number of beds available for County use. (F.3.)
R4

Follow-up on the planned children's psychiatric unit at CHOC and continue to work with appropriate private hospitals in Orange County in an effort to provide additional psychiatric beds for children in Orange County. (F.4.)
R5

Add Mental Health Services Act Steering Committee representation from designated private hospitals that have demonstrated effectiveness in evaluating and treating Welfare and Institutions Code 5150 clients in crisis situations. (F.5.)
R6

Request an opinion from County Counsel regarding the purported restrictions on using Mental Health Services Act funds for involuntary mental health programs. (F.6.) Orange County Mental Health: Crisis Intervention Programs

Agency Responses 1

Government agencies' official responses to this report's findings and recommendations. Click on a response to see the structured breakdown.

County Executive Officer 8/25/15

August 25, 2015 • 5 pages View Details ▾

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* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.