Tagged: mental health

This week on Valley Edition we talk about access to mental health care in Fresno County. We also hear about a new study that has bad news for Valley residents, as the Valley is actually experiencing setbacks in a number of key health indicators. And we close the program with an interview about an event called heART beat that aims to help support music programs in the schools. 

Valley Edition for May 8, 2012:

Fresno County is moving forward with a plan to reopen a crisis center for mental health patients. The county closed the center in 2009 due to budget cuts. That resulted in patients being sent to area emergency rooms.

Hospitals say they aren’t well equipped to handle those patients. The new crisis stabilization service will be run by a private contractor, Exodus Health, at the county’s former facility on Kings Canyon Road.

The four year contract with Exodus Health to provide the services for Fresno County is for around $16 million.

As California’s counties face increasing budget pressures, programs that aid those with mental illness have been reduced or eliminated. In Fresno County, patients who used to be treated in the county’s Crisis Intervention Service program are now being sent to area hospital emergency rooms, with serious consequences for patients and the public. Correspondent Shellie Branco reports on the state of mental health services in the Valley.