Orange County elected officials Friday touted $7 million in funding received from the state to help round out the county’s new mental health system of care.
Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairman Andrew Do recalled helping hatch the plan six years ago.
“I don’t think optimistically within six years we’d be here with a system alive and functioning with physical facilities having been built and to be built soon,” Do said at a news conference at the Be Well Orange campus to announce $5 million from the state to help open an Irvine campus and $2 million for a data integration system to streamline records of patients.
Sen. Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana, praised Do for his leadership on mental health treatment in the county.
“We’re really blessed to see this vision come to fruition,” said Umberg, who also partnered with Do on providing mental health services in Orange County’s jails.
Sheriff Don Barnes said, “I run the largest mental health hospital in the county and that’s not by design, that’s by default.”
Barnes said mental health treatment in the county’s jails have increased 60% over the past five years. More than half involve substance abuse issues, he said.
Barnes said he hopes the Be Well OC campuses will provide a destination to treat people before their mental health issues lead them to law enforcement.
Orange County Supervisor Lisa Bartlett, who was also in on the start of the effort with Do, said the COVID-19 pandemic “has been exacerbating” the growing seriousness of substance issues and that the “Be Well campus could not have come at a better time.”
The $2 million in data integration services funds will help make it easier for doctors to keep track of patient records and eliminate duplication and errors, Bartlett said.
Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley echoed Bartlett’s concern about the pandemic’s impact on mental health.
“The need for quality health care has never been greater, and this pandemic has exacerbated that need,” Foley said. “The pandemic has increased the number of residents in our county who are in need of treatment.”
Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris, D-Laguna Beach, worked with Umberg and Sen. Patricia Bates, R-Laguna Niguel, to help secure the funding for the Be Well OC system.
“Mental illness touches all of our lives,” Petrie-Norris said, adding, “We all know someone who has battled these demons… Perhaps ourselves. It’s no secret this is a universal struggle. It’s also no secret (that the mental health systems) are fundamentally broken.”
Petrie-Norris said the new system is an “opportunity that is so incredibly exciting. Be Well has taken an innovative approach to mental wellness… and it’s getting results, real results.”
Bates, a former social worker, hailed the “bipartisan effort” that helped secure the funding for the project.
The Be Well campuses are envisioned as a mental health services treatment center for county residents regardless of their income.