For somebody in disaster, with the ability to entry help is crucial. To assist, Santa Clara County is striving to attach folks with the correct providers for therapy.
The Behavioral Well being Navigator Program, which launched July 27, presents personalised help by referring folks to county and neighborhood assets that greatest match their wants. The purpose of this system is to handle challenges folks face in navigating the county’s difficult psychological well being care system.
When a calls is available in to the behavioral well being name middle, psychological well being peer help employees—often known as navigators—are there to help. These navigators are people with lived expertise resembling friends, relations or caregivers of somebody who has skilled the behavioral well being system. They perceive the anxious voice on the opposite finish of the road as a result of they’ve lived it.
If individuals are given the incorrect data and assets or turned away as a result of their insurance coverage is ineligible, it could possibly stop them from in search of assist, stated Alicia Anderson, program supervisor of entry and unplanned providers for the county’s behavioral well being providers division.
“If the one reply you get is, ‘We solely work with Medi-Cal beneficiaries,’ as a substitute of the place you possibly can go for assist, that’s a giant distinction,” she informed San José Highlight, including the fantastic thing about this system is anybody can name no matter their insurance coverage supplier.
The navigator program is the brainchild of Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian, who usually heard from households that they wanted assist in discovering the correct path to therapy. In November 2021, the board of supervisors unanimously supported his proposal.
“Individuals who want psychological well being assist, for themselves, a pal or a member of the family, are already in a world of harm,” Simitian stated in an announcement. “Then they need to confront a system that’s difficult, complicated and bureaucratic.”
Three full time peer navigators educated about neighborhood assets refer shoppers to providers. Three extra could also be added early subsequent yr, Anderson stated.
The navigator workforce works carefully with the behavioral well being name middle, the 988 suicide and psychological well being disaster hotline and cellular disaster groups. Two drop-in facilities are additionally out there for in-person session.
The pandemic exacerbated the necessity for help. In 2021, greater than 40,000 residents accessed the county’s behavioral well being system and about 4,500 accessed its habit and substance use providers, a 13% enhance over the earlier yr, in response to the county well being system.
In January, county officers declared a public well being disaster within the area associated to psychological sickness and substance abuse. Compounded by the pandemic, there’s been a dramatic enhance in college students affected by extreme melancholy and nervousness. An insufficient variety of beds in therapy amenities has led to incarceration moderately than psychological well being help providers. The county has since added an outpatient therapy program often known as Laura’s Regulation, which seeks to assist these with extreme psychological sickness.
Making a distinction
Bruce Copley, director of entry and unplanned providers for the behavioral well being division, informed San José Highlight a part of the problem folks face in in search of psychological well being help is the stigma and disgrace hooked up to those wants.
He stated as a result of the navigators have lived expertise, they will share their very own tales with callers to carry them out of their shells and assist open doorways to acceptable providers.
Anderson stated getting folks the correct care is essential. Up to now, residents weren’t linked to the correct referral attributable to an advanced telephone tree or not being requested deeper questions. If a caller stated they wanted assist with housing, they’d be given a quantity to name, however an extra dialog might need revealed a home violence challenge, she stated. Now navigators spend extra time with every caller to raised perceive the state of affairs.
Though this system focuses on psychological well being, substance abuse and suicide prevention, navigators obtain and refer calls concerning home violence, medical providers and housing to different county providers by means of detailed hand-offs.
“I believe there’s numerous nervousness going to a brand new service for the primary time,” Anderson stated. “It’s very totally different understanding what to anticipate whenever you go someplace versus simply having the details about what they supply.”
To contact the Navigator Program, name the Behavioral Well being Name Heart at (800) 704-0900, choice 4. Drop-in facilities are positioned in San Jose at Zephyr Self Assist Heart, 1075 E. Santa Clara St., or Behavioral Well being Pressing Care at 871 Enborg Ct.
Contact Lorraine Gabbert at [email protected]
