Although there are plenty of services
available to individuals with mental illness in the area, a report by the San
Mateo County Civil Grand Jury released Thursday finds that accessing the
services can be an extreme challenge.
Following its investigation into mental
health support in the county, the grand jury recommends the county adopt a form
of assisted outpatient treatment; establish a mental health diversion program;
improve coordination and organization among the various divisions and
contractors of the county’s Health System; and develop a comprehensive public
awareness program so more people are aware of the services available to them.
Currently, up to 24 percent of inmates in
county jail are diagnosed with mental illness and 70 percent are substance
abusers. Many inmates are diagnosed with both disorders.
District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe,
however, isn’t a fan of diversion as proposed by the grand jury. His office
implemented a deferred entry of judgment program June 1 for individuals with
low-level misdemeanor offenses.
It requires the individual to plead no
contest to the crime they committed. The agreement delays sentencing until the
individual completes a program. If they don’t complete a program, then they
return to court for sentencing.
In a pre-plea jail diversion program,
charges are never filed which could be problematic for the District Attorney’s
Office if the individual does not complete a program, Wagstaffe.
The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors
has already implemented one of the grand jury’s recommendations when it
implemented Laura’s Law at its Tuesday meeting.
Wagstaffe wants to see how Laura’s Law
and the deferred entry of judgment program works in the county before
considering other options.
Other officials in the county, however,
say a pre-plea program could work.
“There are great benefits to a carefully
crafted pre-plea mental health diversion program. If someone gets a felony
conviction, their chance of getting stable housing and employment plummets.
Also, getting rid of criminal charges can be a great incentive to participate
in treatment. We look forward to exploring with our partners in criminal
justice ways to collaborate in improving the lives of our residents living with
mental illness,” Jean Fraser, chief of San Mateo County Health System, wrote in
an email.
Laura’s Law authorizes the courts to
order outpatient treatment for individuals with mental illness.
To qualify for the program, individuals
must have a serious mental illness plus a recent history of psychiatric
hospitalizations, jailings or acts, threats or attempts of serious violent
behavior toward themselves or others.
In counties that have already implemented
Laura’s Law, the results have proved effective, according to the report.
In Nevada County, hospitalization of
individuals with serious mental illness was reduced 46 percent; incarceration
was reduced 65 percent; and emergency contacts by first responders were reduced
61 percent. Nevada County also saved $1.81 for every dollar spent on Laura’s
Law, according to the report.
Implementing the law will hopefully lead
to a decrease in emergency room admissions and help keep people out of jail,
said Supervisor Don Horsley, the county’s former sheriff.
The Sheriff’s Office previously had a
jail diversion program for the mentally ill called Options but funding from the
state to support it was cut, Horsley said. The program provided transitional
housing and case management.
“It gave them their lives back,” Horsley
said.
The grand jury is recommending that the
District Attorney’s Office and the Health System coordinate efforts to develop
a mental health pre-plea jail diversion program.
The Sheriff’s Office does have a
post-plea program that works well in conjunction with probation, Sheriff Greg
Munks said Thursday.
“I agree that jail is the worst place for
the mentally ill. It’s in everybody’s best interest to intervene before they
end up in jail,” Munks said.
The Sheriff’s Office also has a crisis
intervention program that trains police to better recognize when an individual
may have a mental illness, Munks said.
Other grand jury findings include that
the county’s network of mental health services is highly complex with no
central point of access. It also finds that medical record keeping is
inconsistent within the Health System. Behavioral Health and Recovery Services
and the San Mateo Medical Center’s Psychiatric Emergency Services have separate
electronic medical keeping systems while the Correctional Health division,
which provides services to inmates in county jails, does not have a
computerized system for medical records.
It also finds that public awareness of
mental health services is insufficient.
June
19, 2015
The
Daily Journal
By Bill
Silverfarb
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