According to the California Department of Healthcare Services, in 2020, one-fifth of all emergency room visits in California were made by people suffering from mental health or substance use issues. That’s one of the reasons California is implementing the Mobile Crisis Services Benefit.
Starting on December 31st, the Mobile Crisis Services Benefit will require counties to provide mobile services to Medi-Cal patients, who are dealing with mental health or substance use crises.
There are a number of mobile crisis support teams in Sonoma County: There’s Specialized Assistance For Everyone – or SAFE – in Rohnert Park, Cotati, Sonoma State University, and Petaluma. There’s inResponse in Santa Rosa, there’s the Healdsburg CORE Team and there’s the county’s mobile support team.
But these teams have operated independently from each other and the county’s team, specifically, has suffered from a staffing shortage. The Mobile Crisis Services Benefit will expand and fully integrate the Mobile Crisis Unit, so that it can serve the entire county.
Teams on the county’s mobile crisis units will have at least one member who can administer naloxone, one who can conduct a crisis assessment and one substance use or mental health professional. They’ll operate 24/7, and will be dispatched through a phone line that is separate from 911.
Their projected budget for fiscal year 2023-2024 is about three-and-a-half million dollars – most of that going to staffing. They will be able to bill Medi-Cal $3,500 per interaction they have with Medi-Cal patients.
