LOS ANGELES (CNS) - The Los Angeles City Council Wednesday extended a contract with L.A. County for continued use of therapeutic vans to provide rapid support and care to people undergoing mental health crises.
The program involves the county Department of Mental Health's therapeutic transport response, in conjunction with the Los Angeles Fire Department's dispatch system.
In an 11-0 vote, the council approved extending the contract for another 12 months, until June 30, 2024.
"When people are going through crises, there's a different level of response," said Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez. "Our highest, most precious response is our firefighters and police, but the PMRT, or the Psychiatric Mobile Response Team bands, they respond to mental health crises."
Under the program, DMH deploys 20 mental health teams -- four at each of the five LAFD regional bureaus. Each team operates seven days a week.
The program is intended to offer an alternative response to police and fire when people are experiencing a mental health crisis. In addition, the mental health teams free law enforcement officers and firefighters to handle other emergencies.
"I know in some of the districts, it's responding to a lot of calls, so let's just put more air in these tires," Hernandez said.
Councilman Tim McOsker voted in favor of extending the contract -- but pointed out what he said were improvements that are needed in his 15th District, in San Pedro.
"The therapeutic van, which I'm grateful for, is on Terminal Island," McOsker said. "Terminal Island has a couple of access points that are difficult to navigate and getting more and more difficult by the day.
"And so the therapeutic van in my district has the lowest usage and it will get lower if it does not move because we are also doing some road repairs around the island, and we're also going to be redirecting the Thomas Bridge."
McOsker said he will be working to move the program off Terminal Island into a more centralized location.
"I look forward to seeing how our next year of implementation goes and how we can tweak to expand it to fit the unique needs of our city," Hernandez said.
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