Mental Health Pilot Program Goes Before Ventura County Board
The measure supervisors are considering would allocate about $600,000 for 12 months, which would allow 20 people to get help. The pilot is envisioned to be 18 months long, with an additional $300,000 to come from the 2017-18 budget cycle.
The Ventura County Star:
Ventura County Mental Health Advocates Continue Support For Laura's Law
It might not be as wide-ranging as some had hoped, but passing even a pilot Laura's Law program will go a long way toward helping a population that can't or won't seek the help it needs. That's the assessment of several mental health advocates and providers who hope the Ventura County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approves the program aimed at getting treatment to people with severe mental illness. (Martinez, 3/5)
The San Diego Union-Tribune:
County Health Plans New $24M Complex In Oceanside
A nearly 60-year-old complex that houses mental and public health services in Oceanside will be demolished early next year, and replaced with a bigger building on the same spot. Officials said the old structure has outlived its usefulness. It was built in the late 1950s, along Mission Avenue a few blocks east of Interstate 5. (Figueroa, 3/4)
In other news, developments on two mental health facilities —
The Press Democrat:
Sonoma County's New Mental Health Facility Opens
Sonoma County has finally mothballed a nearly half-century-old troubled mental health facility that for years evoked a darker era of psychiatric care, a time when patients in crisis were locked away in drab institutions and forgotten. Once considered a model of modern behavioral health care, the severely pared-down Oakcrest psychiatric facility over the years devolved into a Band-Aid effort at caring for the county’s most emotionally and mentally troubled residents. (Espinoza, 3/6)