Mental health officials in Los Angeles are increasingly making use of urgent care centers to treat patients with mental health crises instead of jail beds or psychiatric emergency rooms, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles County now has five urgent care centers and plans to open four more in the next couple years, according to the report. The centers provide short-term care for patients and can keep them for up to 23 hours.
The county's centers accepted more than 27,000 visits last fiscal year, which cost about $28 million, according to the report. The centers are funded with state mental health funding and Medi-Cal, California's Medicaid program.
The urgent care centers did take awhile to catch on, according to the Los Angeles Times. Police originally didn't bring patients there because the centers could not accept people with serious medical issues, who are extremely intoxicated or who are aggressive, according to the report. However, after meeting with the contractor that runs three of the county's five centers, police have steadily increased the number of patients they bring to the urgent care centers, according to the report.
The trend has lifted some pressure off regular emergency rooms and psychiatric departments, though sometimes people seen at the urgent care centers must be placed in inpatient care, according to the report. One of the best benefits? Families now have access to mental health care on nights and weekends, or whenever a crisis hits.
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