More Los Angeles County residents are experiencing symptoms of anxiety and depression, while trying to put their lives back together after devastating fires destroyed at least 16,555 structures and damaged another 2,000, including many residential properties.
Also, family members who need to call for help for a loved one experiencing an acute, mental health crisis, would rather reach out to a mental health team than armed law enforcement.
But getting people in both situations a timely, mental health counselor has been slow due to not enough personnel to do the job, the county reported.
Incentives that began in 2023, such as signing bonuses and extra pay for night deployment and other retention methods, have increased the number of mental health teams in the field from 33 to 71, reported Fourth District Supervisor Janice Hahn. Also, response times dropped from six hours to about two hours.
“While that is a big improvement, that is still not good enough,” said Hahn, who authored the motion.
Vacancies still plague the department. And incentives dollars used in the initial program are running out, leaving the county with the possibility of losing workers to higher-paying positions outside the county unless the program is revived.
“It is not the moment to decrease mental health care services,” said Third District Supervisor Lindsey Horvath.
In an attempt to meet these diverse mental health needs, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday, Feb. 4 to continue incentives for hiring 40 more mental health workers within the county’s Department of Mental Health.
Hahn’s motion, approved 5-0, asks the DMH to find new funding sources and continue aggressive hiring with incentive, retention bonuses and partnerships with universities that can bring on more workers and also provide methods to retain employees already hired and in the field.
Hahn’s goal is to hire more mental health workers, especially those on crisis field teams, so that their response times can drop to about 30 minutes. She’s also asking the department to find quicker ways to dispatch teams to those in need.
“It is frustrating to call and hear it will take two hours,” Hahn said.
Sheila Carter, who spoke to the board on behalf of the National Association on Mental Illness (NAMI) Westside Los Angeles chapter, agreed that more workers are needed and that providing hiring and retention incentives are key.
“A two-hour wait times can feel like a lifetime when you have a loved one in crisis,” Carter said.
In the Eaton fire that destroyed 9,413 structures in Pasadena and Altadena, many are consumed by finding housing and filling out forms for recovery assistance. They haven’t had a moment to call for psychological help, said Connie Larson DeVaughn, pastor of Altadena Baptist Church, which was destroyed in the fire. Her house was spared.
“Mental health needs are pushed to the side,” she said on Tuesday in an interview. “One person said I was in denial, that is how I am dealing with it.”
DeVaughn, who said the church now meets in an all-purpose room of the Highlands Church in La Crescenta, says she tells church members that grief is a long process and encourages them to experience their feelings whenever they arise.
“While we in the faith community say bring it to God, I think the (county) resources are absolutely necessary. I wonder about how to get those resources to the people. That is the question,” she said.