Her son, who is now 32, was in and out of jail before he was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and found a successful medication regimen. “He had to be the one to call in (for help) and he wouldn’t call.” “He didn’t believe there was anything wrong with him,” Caslava said. One of his conditions is called anosognosia, which is when patients do not think they are sick. She said her son experienced his first break with reality more than a dozen years ago, when he was in his late teens. Sue Caslava of San Marcos is more fortunate than many. The definition of what is stable is too broad. “A lot of loved ones return to homelessness. “It’s frustrating for family members when (patients) are not capable of maintaining that care,” Steenstra said. “It’s really only a few days of care and then they send the patient off with medication and an IOP (intensive outpatient program).”īut patients often refuse to take their prescriptions, and no one is designated to monitor their progress, she said. “Everything seems to be dominated by what insurance will cover,” Steenstra said. Laura Steenstra is a volunteer with the San Diego chapter of the National Alliance of Mental Illness, a nonprofit advocacy group that provides resources and counseling to families affected by mental health issues.ĭespite the recent initiatives by San Diego County, she said there is a lack of subsidized housing for mentally ill people, and it’s too difficult to qualify - and remain eligible - for benefits that allow people to live independently.Īlso, there are lapses in aftercare services once patients are stabilized through treatment and medication, she said.
Many families are grateful for the county’s fresh focus on mental health services, and the resources the Board of Supervisors is directing to the issue.īut for some, the programs now being developed may not make the huge impact that county officials hope because they do not address larger concerns that cost even more money or they require changes in state and federal laws.
“According to the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency, around 1 in 4 San Diego County adults face a mental health challenge and 1 in 5 children have some degree of emotional or behavioral difficulties,” the agency reported. By May 2020, SANDAG said, the region’s mental health providers were receiving an average of 106 calls per day. We offer subscribers exclusive access to our best journalism.Įven before the COVID-19 pandemic, calls for mental health services were escalating.Ī report by the regional planning agency San Diego Association of Governments, or SANDAG, said the number of mental health calls climbed by 84 percent between 20, from just over 17,000 a year to almost 32,000.Ī follow-up study last year found that requests for help continued to rise between 20, when just under 38,000 calls for service were reported. Ten years ago, the behavioral health budget was $431 million.Īt the same time, the county’s mental health workforce has steadily inched upward. That’s an increase of almost $40 million over last year and $105 million in 2019. This year’s Behavioral Health Services budget exceeds $817 million. “We are trying to completely reimagine and rebuild a system, and that takes money.” We’re not just throwing more money at a problem,” said Fletcher, a former combat Marine and relatively new member of the Democratic Party. “All of these things really fit together. Like most government agencies, the staffing and budget of the Behavioral Health Services office of the county Health and Human Services Agency rose incrementally through the years.īut the investments have grown by hundreds of employees and hundreds of millions of dollars since 2018, when Fletcher claimed his seat on the Board of Supervisors and began making good on his campaign pledge to steer more resources to treatment and services for those in need. With support from fellow Democrats Nora Vargas and Terra Lawson-Remer, who each joined the board last year, San Diego County is investing in behavioral health on a scale that has never been seen before.
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