Mental Health Care In Orange County

A year ago (3/28/23) I wrote a blog post titled “The Illusion of Accessible Mental Health Care”. It’s an 8 minute rant about how here in Orange County, CA the average person is led to believe that if there is a need for mental health care, it's available. This is simply not true.

I’m not going to repeat everything I said in the last post, you can read it if interested. For the last 5 months I have witnessed disappointing and unbelievable “care” for a friend of mine. The bottom line is there is not ENOUGH care and those making decisions that are life altering for the mentally ill individual, don’t

seem to understand the implications of their choices. I’m sure their hands are tied but I’ve heard/seen some things that had me shaking my head thinking “are they serious?”

I respect anyone who chooses this as a profession. I am not knocking them because if it were up to each social worker, etc. things would be so much better. But they aren’t.

Here is an example: A woman in psychosis who clearly can’t take care of herself is given a “crisis bed”, which is one step above being homeless. It's a bed in a residential home where she is provided one meal a day and a place to sleep. She has the freedom to come and go as she pleases, she is not drug tested, she is not monitored for medications. The house is located in an area of Anaheim known for drug activity, crime and homelessness. My friend can wander the streets which in her vulnerable condition is very dangerous. She periodically leaves and finds herself a hundred miles south not knowing how she got there.

There’s more, but this is all I have for now. It's heartbreaking and scary and not fair. There’s a facility being built in Irvine that will have 200 beds, but it won’t be ready for two more years. I don’t have solutions, but the problem is glaringly obvious and when you love someone who’s in this situation, it's hard to sleep at night.