Sonoma County wants to help thousands of mentally ill people who are homeless or at risk of becoming so by bolstering aid programs that serve them under a new initiative supported through $17 million in federal and local funds.
The four-year effort is intended to address the outsize strain that a small number of people with complex medical problems place on public resources by providing them with more comprehensive care — treating their mental health problems in tandem with immediate physical health issues, for example. It’s one of 15 similar programs across California approved last month by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“We know a lot of the homeless people, or people who are at risk, have these behavioral health issues, and today the behavioral health system doesn’t have enough capacity to serve them,” said Margaret Van Vliet, executive director of the county’s Community Development Commission, one of 13 public agencies and community organizations participating in the local effort. “Putting more juice in the system means we can hire more professional staff, either on the county’s payroll or through contractors, so that there’s more bandwidth in the system to actually get people the care they need.”
The county expects to cover half the cost of the program, which will support 26 new staff positions across the participating agencies, including about 18 county posts.
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