SANTA MARIA - Santa Barbara County Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Services has been among the hardest hit county departments by recent budget cuts at a time when demand for those services is growing.
For years there has been a growing chorus of concern about a lack of adequate urgent psychiatric care facilities and bed space in the county, particularly in northern Santa Barbara County.
Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria currently leases the space that houses its "Medical Center West" facility at 505 East Plaza Drive but is planning to vacate the premises soon.
Santa Barbara County Supervisor Steve Lavagnino wants to see the County partner with Marian in converting the facility into a North County psychiatric ward for people with urgent mental health issues.
"Somebody calls 911, the police pick them up, they take them to the emergency room, our emergency room isn't dedicated for that", Lavagnino says, "so we end up with folks that are strapped to a gurney for 72 hours, they're not being serviced, or they end up going to jail, the jail is not set up for folks with mental illness either."
Santa Barbara County has just 16 beds in its lockable psychiatric care unit, all in the south county, for an adult population of about 300,000 people.
That's about half of what mental healthcare experts say is the minimum needed, or about 1 bed for every 10,000 adults.
As a result, Santa Barbara County contracts with Ventura County to accommodate any overflow of patients.
"So you have somebody who is either suicidal or psychotic, and we're breaking them apart from their family, their structure, we're sending them to Ventura", Lavagnino says, "its costing the county a fortune, we're spending $1.2 million a year to put people into Ventura County, I think we can probably do it cheaper here, its definitely a better safety net for them, and working with Marian Medical Center, we're working with the right individuals that can help us with this."
The Board of Supervisors will discuss the plan at its scheduled board meeting Tuesday in Santa Barbara.
The Board must also decide whether to spend about $15,000 on a feasibility study for the plan.
