ORANGE COUNTY— Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley voted to approve the Orange County Health Care Agency to accept a $10 million grant to expand HCA’s Mobile Health Crisis Response programs.
The funding will go towards enhancing the community mobile crisis response system through the purchase of 30 vehicles for the Crisis Assessment Team (CAT) and Outreach and Engagement (O&E), upgrades to the electronic information systems to enhance crisis response, and training for individuals with lived experience to provide peer services.
“This funding will improve our mobile crisis response system in Orange County to ensure that individuals with mental health challenges are diverted to mental health resources instead of jails and emergency rooms. I am proud to support these efforts to support our most vulnerable while also saving taxpayer dollars and allowing law enforcement to focus on public safety issues instead of mental health,” said Supervisor Foley.
“We are very excited to draw down these funds to better support the efforts of our crisis response system of care,” said Dr. Veronica Kelley, OC HCA Chief of Mental Health and Recovery Services. “These funds will allow us to better leverage current services, allowing more options for assistance with transportation to needed levels of care, technology, and training. This will help to ensure Orange County residents experiencing a behavioral health crisis get the help they need, when they need it.”
