Citing a severe shortage of mental health services in Orange County, Santa Ana officials are considering turning much of their mostly-vacant city jail into a mental health treatment center.
“Here in Orange County, we have a crisis with mental illness,” said Councilwoman Michele Martinez in proposing the change during Tuesday’s city council meeting.
Martinez said the number of mental health treatment beds in the county dropped from 1,217 in 1995 to 481 today in a county with a total population of 3.1 million. The drop has been attributed by the county Health Care Agency to public and private insurance companies cutting their coverage for psychiatric hospitals.
“Not just here in Orange County, but across the United States, we have looked at mental illness as a crime,” Martinez said. “It is not a crime to be mentally ill.”
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