Sempervirens Psychiatric Health Facility: a KEY Support System for*

Sempervirens is playing an important role for those experiencing acute mentol health issues in Humboldt County, providing an important service to the patients and the broader community. Agree.

There is considerable emphasis on the safety of patients and staff by minimizing injuries, self-harm, and potential liability. This enhances the trust and security in the patient-staff relationship. Agree.

Patients are provided with extensive services to improve their mental health and prepare for discharge. Strong patient involvement helps ensure that the discharge pracess provides optimal patient success upon release. Agree.

There are clear patients' rights that are provided in writing to all patients on intake. These give patients more confidence in their safety and security. Agree.

There is a Potients' Rights Advocate available to assist patients in learning, understanding, and exercising their rights; the Advocate also monitors the facility to ensure that it complies with the law. These actions provide patients' safety and security. Agree.

The Sempervirens facility is very old and in disrepair. The Crisis Stabilization Unit is unusable for significant periods of time when the roof leaks; this greatly compromises the use of Sempervirens facilities. (R1) Agree. While the county agrees with this finding, it is important to note that the Humboldt County Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) has been awarded more than $43.5 million to help construct a new Sempervirens psychiatric health facility. The new ADA-accessible facility, which will be housed on Fifth Street across from the Humboldt County Courthouse, will be more than 21,000 square feet, include 16 psychiatric health facility beds and four crisis stabilization unit beds, and will make it possible to expand access to children and youth, as well as patients who are not ambulatory. The new facility is expected to be completed by 2030.

The Sempervirens program is currently understaffed. SV needs to be fully staffed to meet the cammunity's needs for acute mental health services while ensuring the well-being af patients and stoff. (R2, R3) Partially agree. The county agrees it is beneficial for Sempervirens to be fully staffed to meet the community's needs and fulfill regulatory requirements. Due to the inability to hire sufficient county staff for Sempervirens, and in order to meet its regulatory requirements, and DHHS contracts with outside entities to staff this facility.

The County often takes three to six months to complete the hiring process, and by that time, the interested professianal often has moved on and sought onother position. This negatively impacts the recruitment of personnel to fill vacancies at Sempervirens. (R3) Partially agree. The average time for a county recruitment to be administered in Fiscal Year 2024-2025 was 65 days. Following a recruitment, additional pre-employment requirements may be required before a start date can be set with the selected candidate. Specific to Sempervirens, the county agrees that filling these vacancies often takes three to six months due to additional pre-employment steps such as reference checking, Livescan background checks, pre-employment physicals, pre-employment x-rays and/or advanced step requests from candidates. It should be noted that the county is required to maintain compliance with the Department of Healthcare Services requirements for pre-employment screenings. In October 2023, DHHS removed non-mandated x-ray requirements for several job classifications utilized in Sempervirens, including Behavioral Health Nurse I/II, Behavioral Health Clinician I/II, Supervising Behavioral Health Clinician, Mental Health Worker I/II, Senior Mental Health Worker and Psychiatric Technician I/II. These job classifications continue to require pre-employment physicals in compliance with Department of Healthcare Services regulations.