Anonymous
Source: County of Santa Barbara
The Santa Barbara County Department of Behavioral Wellness, in partnership with the Good Samaritan Shelter and the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, are piloting a new Jail Discharge Program. The CREDO47 Stabilization Center, operated by the Good Samaritan Shelter, will have a transportation team member present outside of the jail lobby every Wednesday and Friday from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. through this new pilot program. The goal of the program is to provide basic resources, such as phone charging, water, PPE kits (including masks, hand sanitizer, and more), resource guides, phone calls, and transportation. In addition, the program will provide linkage to services for an individual open to this assistance.
Serena Cyr, PsyD, CREDO47 Program Manager for Behavioral Wellness said, “As with any new program, we expect to be learning and making adjustments, but are excited to be able to begin the process of connecting people with resources and linking to services when interested.” “There are certain times when basic resources and service linkage are especially important, and discharge from jail is one of those times. We are grateful to be a part of a collaborative team to support people at a critical time.”
Planning for this program began during meetings to discuss State COVID Emergency Supplemental Funding (CSEF), which allowed for the additional staffing, funding for basic needs, and technology. Good Samaritan and Behavioral Wellness are partnering to provide the staffing as well as many of the basic need supplies.
For more information on the CREDO47 Stabilization, please call 805-250-9022.
To learn more about Santa Barbara County Department of Behavioral Wellness, please visit HYPERLINK “http://countyofsb.org/behavioral-wellness” http://countyofsb.org/behavioral-wellness. For assistance with accessing Santa Barbara County Behavioral Wellness services, call the 24/7 toll-free Crisis Response and Services Access Line at (888) 868-1649.
Sounds nice but really pretty weak. Once again Behavioral Wellness is into press releases and good words. They should meet these folks as they exit and escort them to care and needed resources instead of giving out. The moment of discharge is the optimum time to intervene. Send them on their way with a brochure is sick. But BHW does not want to do the hard work.
Great, kick the good samaritans like former Transportation guy Rob Dayton and his team to the curb for volunteering to do this very welcome service, and now hire more county workers on the taxpayer rolls to do almost the same thing, but much later in the day at their convenience; not meeting the needs of the very early morning jail releases. This is why we no longer have a nice community of civic minded volunteers. Local employee unions refuse to allow the public’s volunteer competition.