A recent report touts the promising results of a pilot program to connect Santa Barbara County’s mentally ill population with critical outpatient treatment services.
Created under the auspices of California’s Laura’s Law, Santa Barbra County’s Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) program helps identify mentally ill individuals who are not engaged in treatment and get them to voluntarily accept and participate in outpatient treatment services. The county Board of Supervisors approved the creation of the AOT pilot program in 2016, and it began operating in January 2017.
The report, released in early February by the nonprofit Treatment Advocacy Center, stated that Santa Barbara County and 18 other counties with similar programs under Laura’s Law were seeing decreases in psychiatric hospitalizations and incarcerations for members of their mentally ill populations.
“We are actually seeing a lot of success with this pilot program,” said Suzanne Grimmesey, a spokesperson for the county’s Behavioral Health Department, which runs the pilot program.
According to the report, the county’s AOT program led to a 66 percent reduction in psychiatric emergency room visits and a 72 percent reduction in hospitalizations in the first nine months of 2017. According to data from the county Behavioral Health Department, 44 percent of the 48 individuals referred to the program in its first year voluntarily accepted treatment. About 25 percent of those referrals were for individuals living in Northern Santa Barbara County.
“It’s a very proactive treatment program,” said Lynne Gibbs, chair of public policy for the Santa Barbara branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. “You are able to get people into treatment before they can decompensate and become much more ill.”
In addition to getting individuals suffering from mental illness to voluntarily seek outpatient treatment, Laura’s Law also allows counties such as Santa Barbara to seek noncriminal civil court orders to help compel them to do so. In 2017, the county didn’t file any petitions in court for such orders.
“Our primary goal is to engage people in treatment without making them feel like the court is ordering them to do that,” she said.
The county is still gathering data from 2018, but with the Board of Supervisors beginning to discuss budget priorities for the next year, program proponents are asking for continued funding. At a Feb. 26 meeting, 5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino signaled his support for the program.
“That will be a priority for me, to continue funding that,” he said.
For more information about the county’s AOT pilot program, go to countyofsb.org or call (888) 868-1649.
This article appears in Feb 28 – Mar 7, 2019.