The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors at a meeting Tuesday unanimously approved plans for funding more robust mental health services in the county.
Improvements include the implementation of 24/7 mobile crisis response, a call center with dispatch directly to mobile crisis teams, dedicated crisis support for youth and the staffing of peer support specialists.
The changes come at the directive of Crisis Now, a national effort led by mental health experts that outlines a model for providing behavioral health services.
Key elements to the Crisis Now model include improving the quality of centers that provide immediate care during a mental health crisis, as well as having better mobile crisis teams and a more streamlined 988 call center.
Santa Cruz County currently operates a 988 crisis line that serves as the “entry point” for mental health services in the county, a report issued by the Crisis Now program said.