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HOME > ABOUT > PRESS > 300 PATIENTS TO MOVE TO COMMUNITY CLINICS
Article published - March 17, 2008
Credit: NORTHBAY BUSINESS JOURNAL
Three hundred county patients will move to community clinics
by D. Ashley Verrill
SONOMA COUNTY – Southwest Community Health Center and other community clinics recently finalized an agreement to absorb approximately 300 mental health patients from the county for the purpose of integrating their mental and physical care, according to county officials.
The 300 are described as those with mild or moderate mental and behavioral disorders that were formerly cases with the county Resource Team, now called the Access Team. Department of Health Services Director Rita Scardaci said the move has become popular nationally as community clinics expand their mental health services.
“The patients being seen by the [Resource Team] that were considered stable moved over to Southwest,” she said. “We thought it would be the best way to ensure they are having both their physical and mental health taken care of.” To help the clinics take care of the increased load, the county is funding additional psychiatrist hours and case workers, but Southwest Mental Health Director David Anglada-Figueroa said the agreement will impact mental health appointment waiting time.
Southwest took a majority of the patients, about 210, which more than doubles the number currently being seen in the clinic’s mental health services facility. But the new patients won’t necessarily need additional mental health care immediately.
“We haven’t felt the impact yet because the patients are going to see their primary care physician first, and then they decide whether to refer them to mental health services. But we are going to need more physicians and more case workers very soon. But it’s very difficult to attract physicians,” Dr. Anglada-Figueroa said.
Currently, patients have to wait between two and three weeks to see a psychologist and as long as six weeks to see a psychiatrist. The clinic does have on-call therapists available a couple hours a day for people who need care immediately, but even that cannot be guaranteed with the increased patient load in mental health.
“In a way it’s a good thing because some of these patients were just receiving mental health services at the county and received their physical care in another place or none at all,” Dr. Anglada-Figueroa said. “Now we know they are getting both, and they don’t have to go to two different places to get it.”
Southwest is in the process of beefing up its mental health services. The clinic has started providing more group meetings for pregnant women and couples as well as other new groups sponsored by the National Affiliation on Mental Illness. Dr. Anglada-Figueroa also said the clinic would like to attract two or three more mental health professionals.
“We are doing the very best we can with what we have,” he said. “There are still a lot of services that we don’t have and the county doesn’t have – services for children, adolescents, inpatient care. It would really make it easier for those families if they didn’t have to go out of the county.”
Last year, the county closed its inpatient psychiatric care unit, leaving a program at a remote Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital facility on Fulton Road the only location for inpatient psychiatric care in the county. But last month, hospital officials told the county they would be closing those services in April.
“I’ve actually heard people say they would rather go to jail as they think they will get essential services there,” Dr. Anglada-Figueroa said. “Sooner or later it will get to the point where the state will have to make mental health a larger priority, but right now it feels like whenever there needs to be cuts, it comes from mental health.”
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