Santa Cruz County Crisis & Personal Support Digest

With a 31% staff shortage in Santa Cruz County’s mental health division, county supervisors have green-lit a new approach: Hiring more peer support specialists to work on mobile crisis teams.

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.

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?

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.

County leaders endorsed a new plan that charts a path for at least three years of year-round, 24-7 mobile mental crisis response available countywide, among other beefed-up 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.

The new resource page, available at suicidepreventionservicecc.org, includes opportunity to schedule presentations from service experts, connect individuals with resources and lay out how to engage in supportive conversations.

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

Seeking some clues as to what a pending new court-based program set to arrive in Santa Cruz County before the end of next year will look like, city leaders asked for a presentation this week on the so-called CARE court program.

County School Superintendent Faris Sabbah writes about a 12-year-old girl who overdosed on fentanyl in downtown Santa Cruz, a shocking reminder that the national opioid epidemic is in our backyard.

Aiming to respond with trained mental health professionals rather than police officers, the Campus Mobile Crisis Team fields calls four days a week and is ramping up to seven.

"Our students are in crisis," said Santa Cruz County Superintendent of Schools Faris Sabbah.

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.

The SafeRx project will distribute Narcan to six local bars, three in North County and three in South County. It’s partnered with one establishment so far: the Slough Brewing Collective in Watsonville.

Santa Cruz County has finalized plans to rebuild a sobering center—absent since the pandemic began in 2020—on property in front of the Santa Cruz Main Jail.

According to the report, of the 577 calls with mental health codes, 100 resulted in transportation of individuals to local facilities.

Officials say the county does not currently have an inpatient program for youth suffering a mental health crisis and up to this point had been transporting patients to facilities in neighboring counties.

Theodore is smarter than the average bear. But even he has one hell of a time trying to navigate the health care system.

David DePape, 42, faces up to 30 years in prison on one federal charge and up to 20 years on another in the Oct. 28 attack.

Divine Equine currently has about 35 students, 40 volunteers and six highly trained horses at a 13-acre ranch it leases in the Soquel hills. Teenagers make up a quarter of the clients.

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.

Santa Cruz County safety officer Jennifer Buesing is calling on school districts to take the need for on-campus Narcan seriously: “I would rather be overprepared than traumatized knowing there was something that I could have done.”

For three decades, a single-story house in a quiet part of Watsonville has helped men heal their addictions. Sí Se Puede is the state’s first bilingual recovery program of its kind.

Los Angeles Times writer Diana Marcum chronicles the story of Angelica Glass, a Santa Cruzan who came to understand her past while walking around town.

The stories of loss from mothers Sophie Veniel and Carrie Luther inform a much larger picture of fatal fentanyl overdoses. Lookout Local begins a three-part series on the rise of fentanyl-related deaths.

The Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County exists to prevent the spread of diseases such as HIV and hepatitis. Its work will receive support from the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors in the form of a $100,000 grant.

County leaders approved a five-year study of a new strategy for addressing serious mental illness among homeless individuals. The nearly $8.7 million project will aim to transition some 600 people into more stable situations by 2027.

The County of Santa Cruz Behavioral Health has received a $3 million grant from the U.S. Health and Human Services Administration’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to assist local homeless residents.

Thanks to a seven-year effort by Teen Challenge Monterey Bay and the Pajaro Rescue Mission, women facing addiction and homelessness can now find help at the newly open Grace Harbor Women’s Center.

Aptos singer-songwriter Lea McIntosh has always lived with the pain of childhood trauma. She began working through her experiences, using music as an outlet. The result is her debut album, “Blood Cash,” which comes out on Aug. 20.

Hundreds of bike enthusiasts will compete Sept. 25 in the first-ever Heart of Gold, a 55-mile gravel course race through the Gold Country aimed at raising awareness and funds for mental wellness programs for youth in Nevada County. The race, which begins in Nevada City, should draw as many as 400 racers from around the state.