Santa Cruz County’s planned expansion of after-hours mental health services is well-intentioned, but not tenable, writes county mental health liaison Keli Benko. The shift will increase the already heavy workload of crisis responders like her and will cause the quality of care to suffer, she writes. Rather than hiring licensed clinicians to meet an 140% increase in need, the county has contracted an outside agency to staff the program with non-licensed care providers. This leaves a handful of county staff to provide 24/7 overnight and weekend on-call coverage to supervise these workers.
