California Grants $75M for County Mental Health Care Programs
On Thursday, California Treasurer Bill Lockyer (D) announced that the state will distribute about $75 million in grants to boost county mental health care programs, the Los Angeles Times' "L.A. Now" reports. Funding for the grants was approved by the California Health Facilities Financing Authority.
Details of Grants
A total of 20 grants will be distributed to 28 counties in the state for efforts to expand mental health services. The funds represent about 50% of disbursements allowable under the Investment in Mental Health Wellness Act of 2013.
Specifically, the funds will help pay for:
- An additional 827 residential mental health and crisis "stabilization" beds;
- About 60 new workers to staff mobile support teams; and
- More than 36 support vehicles.
The counties that were awarded grant funds included:
- Los Angeles County, which received $40.9 million;
- Riverside, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, which received about $14.4 million;
- Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Santa Clara and Sonoma counties, which received about $12.5 million;
- Fresno, Merced, Sacramento, San Joaquin and Yolo counties, which received about $5.7 million; and
- Butte, Lake, Mendocino and Nevada counties, which received about $1.7 million.
Reaction
Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) said, "More crisis residential beds and mental health crisis teams can make the difference between recovery and a downward spiral into severe mental illness."
He added, "Our criminal justice system and hospital emergency rooms are packed full of people who end up there because they were arrested or hospitalized during a mental health crisis and had nowhere else to go" (Romney, "L.A. Now," Los Angeles Times, 4/24).
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