A growing chain of specialized Los Angeles County clinics is keeping people experiencing mental health crises from ending up in jail or an emergency room, according to statistics compiled by the county and an agency that runs two of the clinics.
One of the clinics, Exodus Eastside Urgent Care Center, sits across the street from the L.A. County/USC Medical Center. Patients are referred from other hospitals, rehab programs, social service agencies, and law enforcement. Roughly one in five is homeless, and most are poor.
The clinic is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Patients come with a range of mental health needs. Some need a refill of their psychiatric medications. Others have been placed on involuntary psychiatric holds, and can remain at the clinic up to 23 hours.
[For more of this story, written by Rebecca Plevin, go to http://www.scpr.org/news/2014/...lly-ill-out-of-jail/]
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