Orange County, Calif., is getting its first emergency centers for psych patients, unburdening local hospitals and filling a void that left mentally ill patients with inadequate treatment, according to an article on the Orange County Register website.
The lack of an outpatient emergency mental healthcare center had resulted in psychiatric patients being sent to hospital emergency rooms, where they sometimes were held for hours or days without treatment.
That also delayed medical treatment for other ER patients.
The county doesn’t yet know where the centers will be located or when they will open. But a Health Care Agency representative said the grant requires that the contracts and plans for the facilities be in place by the end of 2017.
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