August 2024 Newsletter

Greeting D4 residents and friends -  

My office took to the streets in July to participate in the annual Rose, White & Blue parade and in August to celebrate Silicon Valley Pride with a parade and festival. We also spent an early August evening traveling throughout D4 for National Night Out and so appreciated the neighborhoods that welcomed us to their block or park parties.  

In the category of “really big news,” I imagine you have heard about the County’s intended purchase of Regional Medical Center in San Jose. Check out this month’s blog post to hear more about the background and context that got us to the place of further expanding our public health hospital system. You can find a link to the blog post here.  

Quarterly report on Mental Health and Substance Use as a Public Health Crisis   

The Behavioral Health Services Department presented its quarterly update on the extraordinary amount of work being done to address the mental health and substance use public health crisis that was declared by the BOS in January of 2022. Since that time, BHSD has added or increased access to 181 beds (34% of goal) with 234 additional beds in process (44% of goal), leaving an additional 115 beds needed to meet our stated goal. We are also expanding access to outpatient treatment slots, building a workforce to serve the needs of more patients, ramping up our CARE Court resources and preparing to implement SB 43. For more details on all these issues, please check out the slide deck that was shared with the Board on August 27. 

Additionally, I want to highlight that homelessness, justice-system involvement, mental health and substance use disorders are often linked. Homelessness increases the likelihood that people interact with the justice system and develop or see exacerbated mental health or substance use challenges. In California and across the country, we’ve historically over relied on mass incarceration and institutionalization to “solve” homelessness and “treat” mental illness. These approaches merely have the facade of working because folks are locked up, out of sight, and out of mind until they are released back to their – our - communities; but, in reality, temporary removal from community or incapacitation isn’t a long-term solution to homelessness. These removals often have the effect of perpetuating poverty, exacerbating mental health and substance use disorders, and not addressing root causes of homelessness. We absolutely have a need for more treatment beds, and we are adding them as quickly as possible, but we won't solve for homelessness with treatment alone.   

Finally on this topic, the Behavioral Health Services Department is gathering feedback from people who live in Santa Clara County who have utilized either mental health or substance use services or have feedback on what services are needed. Please share your input in a confidential and anonymous survey today. Input from Santa Clara County residents will inform future priorities, programs, and policies for mental health and substance use services in our County.   

The survey is available in multiple languages and takes 10-15 minutes to complete: Use this link https://linktr.ee/sccmhsa 

988 press conference 

I recently took part in a press conference to emphasize the importance of our 988 Crisis Response Center. Calling 988 ensures that a person in a mental health or substance use-related health crisis, their loved one, or a concerned community member can quickly access appropriate advice and, if needed, field support. 988 also aims to divert callers from dialing 911 so law enforcement support can better focus on crimes in process. 
 
Santa Clara County staffs three mobile crisis teams (MCRT, MRSS, TRUST) to respond to 988 calls in the field when necessary. In its first year the 988 Crisis Line answered 20,980 calls, about 5% of which resulted in a field visit by MCRT, MRSS or TRUST. Despite these numbers, I'm still finding that too many people don't know about this crisis line. Please help me spread the word about this vital service. If you’re not sure you are having or witnessing an actual “crisis,” it’s still fine and desirable to make the call – err on the side of caution and get guidance that is appropriate to your situation. 

The Q Corner LGBTQ Wellness Center Opening  

Let me say this right off the bat: the new LGBTQ+ resource and support hub is BEAUTIFUL. INSPIRING. NEEDED.  
 
This County is committed to meeting the needs of our entire LGBTQ+ community. This new hub adds to our complement of services that include Q Corner, the Valley Healthcare's Gender Health Center, a Gender Clinic operated by the Valley Homeless Healthcare Program and, of course, the Office of LGBTQ affairs. For more information about any of these services, please follow this link. 

Bipartisan organized retail theft bills signed into law 

I was honored to be present at a San Jose Home Depot (!) recently where Govenor Newsom signed 10 bills into law that are designed to solve the real problems of organized retail theft, illegal resale rings and the sale of dangerous drugs through syndicates.  

This package is a sensible alternative to the draconian, expensive and misleading promises of Proposition 36, which will appear on the ballot this November. I applaud the collective work of a bipartisan coalition of California legislators along with Governor Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta, State Senate Pro Tempore McGuire, State Assembly Speaker Rob Rivas, and the Grocer’s and Retailers’ Assocation who presented these 10 bills. I was particularly proud that Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen and Santa Clara County Sheriff Bob Jonsen stood at the conference in support of this direction as an alternative to Prop 36.  

You can read further comments from myself and others in attendance in the Governors newsletter.  

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Crisis Management Conference 

During and after a natural or human made disaster, the populations that are hit the hardest are those who faced stability challenges prior to the disaster. 
 
I'm working with and learning from experts at the intersection of human services and crisis management at the Hubert Humphrey Building with the US Dept of Health and Human Services to ensure our county can be best prepared to meet local human need. 

And Just One More Thing Podcast 

The safety of children and health of families is a priority of County government. On this month's episode of And Just One More Thing, I sat down with the Dependency Advocacy Center’s Executive Director Katie Joh and Mentor Program Parent Manager (and former DAC client) Dave Shuster.  The DAC provides interdisciplinary family defense legal services to parents and children involved in Santa Clara County’s informal and formal child welfare system. You can give it a listen on YouTube and Spotify.