The City rolled out its latest tool in its ongoing efforts to deal with mental health issues on Monday morning in front of government officials and gathered press. The new mobile mental health unit is a straightforward solution that’s composed of a specially trained team that will eventually be on call 24 hours a day to assist anyone in Santa Monica suffering from mental health-related trauma.
Called Therapeutic Transportation teams, they will be deployed, when appropriate, by the City’s dispatch center in an attempt to alleviate some of the pressure currently placed on the local emergency services. The team will have the ability to do a psychiatric transport to an urgent mental healthcare facility or hospital, as well as impose a 72-hour psychiatric hospitalization for a person who is deemed to be a danger to themselves or others.
The team can also assist with lower-level needs for someone in crisis and the pilot program will initially focus on the downtown area, with the goal of quickly expanding the program so that a county behavioral health team, led by a clinical social worker, is available in Santa Monica 24 hours a day, seven days a week, said Dr. Lisa Wong, Director of Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (DMH).
“They will go out and help people who are in a mental health crisis using the most moderate methods possible. Our hope is that we can intervene, when and where we can, rather than law enforcement or the fire department, so it frees up the resources for the city to divert to more severe emergencies,” Wong said.
This is a collaboration primarily between the City of Santa Monica and Los Angeles County, along with both the police and fire departments and has been three years in the making. The Santa Monica City Council dedicated $464,000 to fund the pilot program, and the county of Los Angeles provided $1.7 million for staffing resources. This new resource builds on council action last year that secured more funding for community mental health resources.
“This has been a long time coming and we’re very excited to launch this program and make sure that we’re bringing the resources and support that’s needed directly to the communities that are asking for it,” said Lindsey Horvath, Los Angeles County Supervisor.
According to Horvath, this is the third such unit to operate in Los Angeles County, but the first to roll out in Santa Monica. Moreover, many communities are exploring an alternative behavioral crisis response and the City of West Hollywood is exploring its own program.
“This is an effort to help people in our streets, it will help reassure our residents that there is help on the way for those people that they are wary of and it will help people regain their lives,” said Mayor Phil Brock, adding, “Because what’s happening right now is in many cases, homeless individuals on our streets get emergency care or no care. And they have no real chance to regain their lives and become productive residents.”
“The challenge has been that staffing for mental health clinicians who want to do field outreach is challenged right now. But we’ve worked very closely with DMH to assist them in any way we can,” Lindsay Call, Chief Resilience Officer, Office of Emergency Management for Santa Monica said.
While an obvious use of this new service will be to help those also suffering from homelessness, Call stresses the fact that this service is available to absolutely anyone; any individual who is medically stable, non-combative and cooperative. A key part of the new process is that members of the team can remain with the individual until hospital admission is complete.
The vehicle itself is an unassuming white, 2018 Ford T350 HR cargo van with no real branding or signage to speak of, which itself is very deliberate, says Miriam Brown, Deputy Director of Emergency Outreach with the DMH.
“The biggest reason is to ensure that any patient experiencing a mental health crisis retains their privacy and confidentiality and to make sure that they feel more comfortable. Anything we can do to help de-escalate a situation works to everyone’s advantage,” Brown says.
The inside of the vehicle is pretty sparse and there are no oxygen tanks, intravenous drips or machines that go “ping.” Any kind of physical injury would require the assistance of a paramedic unit and emergency medical technicians. There are just some comfortable chairs and lots of space. Two Santa Monica-based teams will staff the van for eight hours per day to start and the three-member therapeutic transport teams include a driver, a peer support specialist and a clinical social worker. The first month of the program will involve team training and integration with first responders.
“This van is specific for mental health emergencies and mental health crises,” says Call. “Any member of the community who calls 911, or our non-emergency line and reports an incident, we will dispatch our resources as needed, as per usual. Our first responders will then do a field assessment to determine if the DMH team is appropriate. When DMH arrives on that call, they’ll do a warm handoff and DMH can spend as much time as needed with that patient and our first responders can return in service to other calls,” Call said.