Mental Health Referral Consultant - Los Angeles: May 2014

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Adult Protective Services Conference in San Bernardino County

Adult Protective Services Conference in San Bernardino County

5/19 - The 27th Annual Adult Protective Services Multi-Disciplinary Team Conferenceincluded a day filled with speakers, breakout workshops, and local vendors and organizations. Lora Connolly from the California Department of Aging kicked off the event with an interactive quiz where attendees tested their knowledge of "Health and Safety Matters", which served as the overall theme for the event.

The conference featured workshops on relevant items such as Medicare fraud, elder abuse, and services for homeless veterans. One of those workshops focused on the CCI and its implementation in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, and drew IHSS, MSSP and HICAP workers.

http://www.calduals.org/ai1ec_event/adult-protective-services-multi-disciplinary-team-conference/?instance_id=126

NAMI 2014 NAMI National Convention

NAMI returns to the nation’s capital for its 2014 national convention!

September 3-6 ~ Washington, DC. Registration is now open

NAMI | 2014 NAMI National Convention

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Recent statement from Lou Vince at DAA regarding mental health

Recent statement from Lou Vince at DAA regarding mental health:

Another major problem in the County jails is the mental deterioration of prisoners with mental illnesses who are receiving little to no services while incarcerated. This problem is directly linked to violence in the jails.
The Los Angeles County jail system has been described by many experts and commentators as the largest psychiatric hospital in the country. The popular social movement of “De-institutionalization” of some years ago has turned into what some mental health experts now term “trans-institutionalization” because our society has transferred the population that once resided in psychiatric hospitals and mental institutions to our jails and prisons. 64% of jail inmates suffer from a significant mental health problem.
According to the opinions of Dr. Terry A. Kupers in a 2008 ACLU report, few inmates in the L.A. County jails were receiving mental health treatment and about 350 per 2,000 inmates were receiving only medications while being subjected to severe overcrowding or isolation but no mental health programming.
Additionally, in tours of Men’s Central Jail, Twin Towers, and the Inmate Reception Center Kupers encountered a significant number of inmates who were either never diagnosed or were discharged from the caseload and transferred from mental health housing, administrative segregation, or disciplinary housing into the general population.
The connection between jail violence and mental illness should be obviously clear. Add jail overcrowding and you have a recipe for increased rates of violence, psychiatric breakdown, suicide, a loss of impulse control, temper flares, and increased noncompliance with rules and regulations.
Also of great concern was the fact that it was found that these mentally-ill inmates were rarely seen by psychiatrists and were being managed by Deputy Sheriffs who had no training in handling psychiatric patients. Deputies react to behaviors exhibited by the mentally ill. They become gruff, which is interpreted by the inmates as being “disrespected” and they, in turn, become angry. Their anger can and does result in being punished and so the anger escalates. Deputies react and so the cycle continues. As your next Sheriff, I would end this cycle!
As Sheriff, I would lobby the County Supervisors to mandate the Department of Mental Health to evaluate the need for substance abuse and mental health services among pre-trial and sentenced offenders, in both the incarcerated and community-supervised population, and develop a plan to fund and provide such treatment and services both in the correctional facilities and the community.