by Carol Leish MA
“On September 8, 2021” according to Mary Haffner, an advocate for people with mental illness, “NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Advocacy Group held a countywide Town Hall to address the needs of people with mental illness.”
During the Town Hall, it was discussed that: “Because of the gaps in services to people with mental illness, the Ventura County Behavioral Health Advisory Board recently passed a unanimous motion requesting that the Ventura County Board of Supervisors approve an independent assessment regarding the continuum of care for people with severe mental illness. Through this comprehensive assessment, it will become possible to reduce the number of people who continue to cycle through successive hospitalizations, incarcerations, and homelessness. Other counties in California have conducted similar assessments and the California State Auditor has recommended that all counties do so, too.”
The NAMI Town Hall also focused on the fact that, ‘The gaps in Ventura County are significant, from crisis care to long-term care. As for crisis care, Ventura County has no psychiatric facility that can directly admit psychiatric emergencies. Someone in crisis with a psychiatric emergency must first wait in a general hospital emergency room. However, other California counties have facilities that allow them to pass hospital emergency rooms so that they can receive prompt treatment. In addition, Ventura County has only 8 chairs for crisis stabilization. For a county of 846,000, this is woefully deficient. As for long-term care, Ventura County has only one 43-bed locked facility, which is currently staffed for 36 patients (July, 14, 2021 ‘Ventura Breeze’: ‘Expansion of Hillmont Psychiatric Unit alleviates waits for patients in crisis.’). There are few Board and Cares, and not enough supportive housing to support long-term rehabilitation and care. As a result, people who need a higher level of care may end up at a sober living home with inadequate supports, thus setting them up for relapse and getting caught up in the cycle again.”
“Ventura County appears to have the second highest percentage of inmates classified as ‘open mental health cases,’ according to a review of the latest numbers from the Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC),” according to the NAMI Town Hall. “With no needed intercept model diversion program, and a dire lack of crisis care, and very few options for long-term treatment and housing, people with severe mental illness cycle into either jail or homelessness.”
Haffner believes that, “We don’t do more to help those with severe mental health issues because I believe that discrimination and stigma play a big role in our society’s failure to provide adequate treatment. We have normalized the jailing of people with mental illness and we have too many people who don’t want any treatment facilities in their communities. This is why leadership is so important. We need leaders who understand the illness and who are willing to educate the public and work towards solutions.”
