1. Support greater funding for all behavioral health services in Humboldt County.
A. Support the availability of more beds for inpatient treatment, improvements in current facilities, and more crisis care options for those with severe mental health challenges.
B. Support the full staffing and funding of Mobile Response Teams and other effective crisis response programs and their development locally throughout the county, using Eureka’s Community Safety Engagement Team as a model.
C. Support a community safety net for the most severely mentally ill (SMI) through implementing the most innovative, evidence-based programs.
2. Support increased staffing of behavioral health workers at all levels and pay grades, including constructive supervision to promote retention.
A. Support the county in hiring clinicians with the most up-to-date, medically sound, culturally sensitive training.
B. Support the county in seeking out funding opportunities that promote the retention of behavioral health professionals.
C. Support the county in developing streamlined procedures and flexible scheduling options for behavioral health workers at all levels and pay grades to receive comprehensive, up-to-date continuing education and training, including training in the specific historical and cultural needs of underserved groups.
D.Support coordination between Humboldt County Behavioral Health and local institutions of higher learning to provide innovative pathways to training, hiring, and retaining all levels of behavioral health care staff.
3. Support greater training in and consistent use of evidence-based practices in prevention and treatment, including training in evidence-based practices for clients, their families, and educators.
A. Support more options for dual diagnosis care and greater outreach to and education of the community about dual diagnosis and harm reduction for the addicted.
B. Support Humboldt County in addressing suicide prevention education and treatment, with a focus on the most vulnerable groups.
4. Support a community-based educational approach to behavioral health support that focuses on replicating demonstrated positive outcomes, acknowledges successes, emphasizes prevention, and decreases stigma, nimbyism, discrimination, and other barriers to care.
A. Support the maintenance of a broad community coalition to address all barriers to services including burnout among behavioral health workers.
B. Support the streamlining of services for physical health, mental health, and substance use disorders to remove barriers to care.
5. Support Humboldt County in addressing all community determinants undermining mental health in the physical/built environment, social/cultural environment, and economic environment. Included as community determinants undermining mental health are the deficiency of supportive housing, the understaffing of the county’s behavioral health system, and the prevalence of incarceration over treatment.
6. Support education about anosognosia (the inability to consistently recognize one’s illness and the need for one’s continuing treatment) for everyone at all levels of the Humboldt County community because it is an important and poorly understood indicator of severe mental disability.
7. Support the requirement that all law enforcement personnel receive at least 16 hours of education devoted exclusively to behavioral health topics, including comprehensive and uniform training on 5150 holds and anosognosia. Support community education on the use of 5150 holds and anosognosia. (A 5150 hold allows an adult who is experiencing a mental health crisis to be involuntarily detained for a 72-hour psychiatric hospitalization when evaluated to be a danger to others, or to himself or herself, or gravely disabled.)