Mobile Crisis Response Team worker preparing to go out on a call
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County supervisors approved a new three-year, $848 million Mental Health Services Act plan Tuesday that will increase spending for programs to help children, youth, families, adults and older adults who suffer serious mental illness or crises.
Some of those existing services include help with mental health services, housing and “wraparound” care that helps children by treating them within their own homes, schools and families. It also includes mobile crisis response teams that send mental health experts rather than law enforcement when appropriate to respond to someone in crisis. And it covers walk-in crisis stabilization units that give people who are experiencing mental-health episodes a safe, calm place to get around-the-clock help rather than being taken to jails or emergency rooms.
Board Chairwoman Nora Vargas praised the plan and said its funding source was critical. Funding comes from California’s Mental Health Services Act, Proposition 163, the 1% tax on state incomes over $1 million that voters approved in 2004 to expand and improve behavioral health help.
“It’s a vital funding source for Behavioral Health Services, representing its biggest funding source,” Vargas said. “And so it’s going to be critical in providing vital treatments, prevention, innovation, and innovative behavioral health services for individuals experiencing serious mental health issues.”
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