Santa Clara County Crisis & Personal Support Digest

Many farmworkers in Coachella Valley lack legal status as citizens and don't qualify for most federal and state disaster aid. Even a new $95 million storm assistance program for immigrants that Governor Gavin Newsom recently touted is out of reach because it pertains to the winter and spring storms and floods.

Gov. Gavin Newsom promised $95 million would help undocumented workers rebuild after winter storms and floods. Months later, $18 million is being doled out and there are translation issues with the state’s website.

How bad is California hunger? A lot depends on your access to food aid, which expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic but is being reduced.

The Biden administration’s app rule makes it harder for migrants to assert a right to asylum, advocates say. Lawsuits are sparking debate about immigration control, safety.

The California Department of Health Care Services has awarded $6.4 million to San-Jose based nonprofit Pathway Society to construct a 30-bed detox facility adjacent to Pathway House.

The Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s 988 hotline marked its one-year milestone this month. Mental health experts say the three-digit number made help more accessible than before.

Some hospitals in Southern California have a nurse vacancy rate of 30 percent, stressing overworked staff and causing some to leave the industry earlier than they planned.

Community Health Awareness Council, which has offered low-cost therapy in Mountain View for 50 years, is closing its clinic because of financial struggles.

Despite efforts by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to shelter more than 14,000 people this year, the city's homeless population keeps growing. That does not necessarily mean her signature program is failing. The larger question: How does California measure success?

Mountain View resident Patrice Moore heard a knock on her front door that would change her life. It was the police, who had arrived and would soon place her in an involuntary psychiatric hold.

In less than a month, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center will have a psychiatric resource to help fill the treatment gap between acute care and long-term stability with a new 28-bed adult residential treatment center at 650 S. Bascom Ave. in San Jose.

Today tribal leaders, local law enforcement and lawmakers gathered to learn how the a new tool—the Feather Alert—will work to help law enforcement quickly notify the public about missing Native Americans and enlist their aid.

Medi-Cal is changing how it pays mental health providers. Many of those providers say they may no longer be able to afford peer support specialists, home visits and other services.

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California launched the California Immigration Detention Database, a tool to track complaints filed by immigrants in California detention facilities to seek redress against inhumane conditions.

Mountain View-based mental health services nonprofit CHAC announced that its clinic services will be going on hiatus beginning in August due to a currently insurmountable budget deficit.

The Assisted Outpatient Treatment program, also known as Laura’s Law, allows authorities and family members to refer people diagnosed with a severe mental illness into the program after they refuse prior treatment. The program began last February. On June 6, the county’s behavioral health department reported its first year findings.

With opioid overdoses rising, Santa Clara County is expanding substance abuse support at schools, distributing more naloxone and fentanyl testing strips and boosting youth inpatient treatment using money from a settlement with opioid distributors.

The Community Health Awareness Council, which is based in Mountain View, has been dealing with financial distress since COVID-19. It now might find relief in a partnership with the county.

After unanimously clearing the Senate, a bill expanding first responders' access to workers’ comp for PTSD moves to the Assembly.

Community and police leaders came together to discuss public safety at a panel hosted by San José Spotlight to address questions over policing and accountability, as law enforcement agencies try to de-escalate their response levels and work toward outcomes that don't end in tragedy.

Two of Santa Clara County’s largest school districts took police off campuses in 2020. Three years later, advocates said the districts have expanded mental health programs and other services in lieu of funding police contracts.

State Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman of Stockton has been appointed chair of the state Senate's health committee. A licensed social worker, Eggman said she will make mental health care and homelessness front-burner issues.

Four months after Santa Clara County rolled out its 988 mental health crisis call center and intervention teams, the program remains short-handed, testing the confidence. In several cases, 988 calls resulted in a police-only response.

The Palo Alto Police Department’s new Psychiatric Emergency Response Team is no longer operating because the therapist left the job, Chief Andrew Binder said.

For one Santa Clara County supervisor, the fight against fentanyl addiction is personal. About a year ago, Supervisor Otto Lee lost a 29-year-old cousin to an overdose.

Even as fentanyl overdoses among young people have skyrocketed, health education remains optional in most California schools. “Prevention is not always prioritized,” says Dareen Khatib, co-chair of the California Health Education Community of Practice.

The Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Department has filed a gun violence restraining order against a 13-year-old—the second time in recent months a Santa Clara County law enforcement agency has used this tool on a minor.

At a press conference on Friday, May 6, outside Mountain View City Hall, Reps. Anna Eshoo and Zoe Lofgren declared that the Supreme Court’s draft decision represents a threat to democracy and called for the Senate to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act.

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors called for the formation of a program to support the mental health of some 9,000 healthcare workers at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center who have been affected by the pandemic. Implementation is targeted for fall 2022.

Santa Clara County officials plan to establish of a working group that will focus on reducing local deaths due to the opioid fentanyl. The working group will launch campaigns to ensure county residents understand the dangers posed by the drug.

A new Santa Clara County program will provide temporary court-ordered outpatient care to individuals suffering from severe mental illness who may have refused treatment in the past or do not believe they need it at present.

Santa Clara County is bringing its Mobile Crisis Response Team program to the Palo Alto area, where it will pair specialized clinicians with law enforcement on calls for people experiencing a mental health crisis.