Trinity County Board of Supervisors*

Private rooms and a portable 'office on wheels' seem to be available at Trinity Hospital for Behavioral Health staff to use in the care and placement of crisis patients, however these resources are not being utilized and it is unclear why. Response: Disagree partially. A private room in the ER can be made available, but only as long as a member of the Behavioral Health staff or a deputy is available to monitor the patient. The gurney depicted outside the nurses' station in the MCHD ER is the only space where patients can be monitored by hospital staff in the absence of mental health crisis staff or a deputy as the hospital does not have staff to dedicate to a 5150 patient. Behavioral Health receives funding through Medi-Cal and 5150 crisis holds are not a Medi-Cal recognized service, therefore reimbursements are not provided. MCHD is willing to enter into an MOU with TCBH to solve the funding problem, but available TCBH staffing is insufficient at present. With regard to a portable 'office on wheels' ostensibly being available, but devoid of utilization, the mobile carts observed are not equipped with phone connectivity and the EHR (electronic health record) software contained on the workstation computers are specific to MCHD rendering them useless to TCBH staff in their current configuration.

Trinity County Behavioral Health and Trinity Hospital are dependent on each other's cooperation to ensure the needs of crisis patients are being met. It appears that there is a lack of cooperation or miscommunication on the responsibilities of each partner. HEIDI CARPENTER - HARRIS DAN FRASIER LIAM GOGAN JILL COX RIC LEUTWYLER DISTRICT 5 DISTRICT 4 DISTRICT 2 DISTRICT 3 DISTRICT 1 Response: Disagree partially. While MCHD and TCBH staff each have component pieces of the process needed to assist 5150 patients, which do need to work in cooperation with the other, neither can do the job of the other and limited resources with regard to budgets, available staff, and specifically trained staff within each entity are not enough to overcome what may, on the face, appear to be a simple lack of communication. Both agencies agree on the common goal of working cooperatively to provide the best possible care for mental health patients and both cooperatively are working to stretch resources as far as possible toward that end.