Posts Tagged: hospitalizations

Q&A: Darrell Steinberg’s longtime focus on mental health

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg at a 2018 City Council meeting. (Photo: Associated Press)

by SIGRID BATHEN posted 09.16.2020

When Darrell Steinberg first ran for the state Assembly in 1998, he made mental health the bedrock of his legislative agenda. Shortly after he took office, the former Sacramento city councilman introduced AB 34, which initially provided $10 million to fund pilot projects for community mental-health programs. The bill marked the first significant state investment in an increasingly troubled mental health system in decades, resulting in what Steinberg called “the beginnings of real success, with decreased hospitalizations and reduced homelessness.”

Dangerous mix: Law enforcement and mentally ill suspects

A suspect in custody, handcuffed by police. (Photo: Boyfare, via Shutterstock)

by SIGRID BATHEN posted 07.21.2020

Police response to mental-health calls often ends – again and again – in chaotic, noisy hospital emergency rooms, where staff is stretched thin, and a heart attack is likely to take precedence over someone in the throes of a mental-health crisis. “Traditionally, people would be dropped off at the ER, and the only option was to transfer them to a psychiatric facility,” says Dr. Scott Zeller, a nationally known emergency psychiatrist and former president of the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry.