A Look at County Behavioral Health Services:

Conclusions 1

• CL1
  While the majority of services provided meet the goals of the mission statement, it has come to the attention of prior and current San Luis Obispo County Grand Juries that, at times, County Behavioral Health services provided to clients in crisis fall short of best practices due to lack of funding for sufficient staff and facilities. New services like the Crisis Stabilization Unit and the proposed drug and alcohol services inpatient facility are a big step in the right direction, but more is needed. There are currently three outpatient clinics, three wellness centers, and a single 16-bed PHF to service our entire County’s over 5000 severely mentally ill residents. Behavioral Health is doing an admirable job with the resources it has available but requires more funding. Currently the state and federal governments provide approximately $58M for the behavioral services within our County. The benefit of augmenting the approximately $12M current County contribution with additional resources will be felt almost immediately within our community. Long-term programs, such as the Stepping Up Initiative (the County-adopted, national initiative to help keep people with behavioral health problems out of our judicial system), will 8 have a chance to be more successful by providing more complete treatments aimed at keeping clients out of crisis situations and out of jail. The County has the treatment structure required to address these behavioral health problems but is not currently equipped to handle the volume of clients living in the County. This Grand Jury report considers these problems from a perspective of what can and should be done now and the impact it will have in support of some of our County’s most vulnerable citizens. The companion report on the PHF also concludes that the operations at the PHF are being carried out by a dedicated and capable staff, but the facility itself is antiquated and lacks adequate therapy and treatment spaces. While the facts and observations document the basis of numerous continuing problems, these issues are complex, partially because this community has been underserved for so long. Not all of the issues surrounding our treatment of those with mental illness and/or substance abuse can be solved quickly or inexpensively, but now is the time to increase our effort to work toward a long term solution. The position with primary responsibility to garner this support is in the process of change; a strong advocate is needed. This need was reflected in the qualifications requested and responsibilities documented in the search to fill this position. Most of the findings reflect recommendations that are needed but will require additional County funding. Many of these should have been addressed long ago, but budget priorities have caused this segment of the population to be neglected and ignored. Ignoring these problems has been a major contributor to the number of our mentally ill population being involved in the criminal justice system and to the San Luis Obispo County Jail becoming the area’s second largest mental health institution after ASH.

Commendations 2

• CM1
  The Grand Jury commends Behavioral Health and its community partners for: a. Operating the Full Service Partnership program, where layered services support patients with severe mental illness b. Eliminating wait lists for most services c. Adding a Crisis Stabilization Unit
• CM2
  The Grand Jury commends the County for acknowledging the desperate need for a residential detox center and their continued support for the center. 11

Agency Responses 3

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