Long Term Care Services: Other State Departments

DOES LONG TERM CARE SERVICES (LTCS) WORK WITH OTHER STATE DEPARTMENTS?

In an effort to provide quality services to our consumers and ensure public safety, LTCS has developed partnerships with several other state departments and local agencies.

Department of Corrections:

The California Department of Corrections (CDC) and DMH work together via an Interagency Agreement to provide for the psychiatric evaluation, care, and treatment of inmates and parolees needing inpatient mental health services. A significant number of CDC inmates or parolees have a history of psychiatric illness prior to commitment to CDC, or are found to be mentally ill when committed to CDC, or become mentally ill during incarceration or parole. DMH provides inpatient treatment services at the state hospitals and operates the psychiatric programs inside the California Medical Facility and Salinas Valley State Prison according to the procedures outlined in the various Memorandums of Understanding.

Joint Quarterly Meetings are held with the prison and state hospital staff to collaborate on policy and procedure development and population management and identify performance improvement areas and training needs for contract services provided by the state hospitals and psychiatric programs.

The Sex Offender Commitment Program and Forensic Services staffs maintain relationships with their counterparts in CDC to ensure processes and procedures are developed for the successful implementation of Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) and Mentally Disordered Offender (MDO) evaluations.

Department of Developmental Services:

The Department of Developmental Services (DDS) provides certain administrative and consultative services to the state hospitals and DMH under an Interagency Agreement. The administrative services include state hospital cost reporting, patient trust and patient billing for third party payors, and allocation of Federal Funds for the Foster Grandparent Program at MSH . Consultative services are provided to ensure that all individuals residing in the state hospitals are identified, assessed and provided free appropriate public education programs and services designed to meet their needs.

Department of Rehabilitation:

DMH has an Interagency Agreement with the Department of Rehabilitation (DOR) to provide vocational rehabilitation services for the Conditional Release Program (CONREP) patients. They initiate the process while the patient is in the state hospital by completing assessments and consulting with the vocational rehabilitation instructors. This participation enables patients to successfully participate in vocational rehabilitation services that will be provided by DOR offices located in the communities to which individuals will be discharged.

Department of Youth Authority:

The California Youth Authority (CYA) and DMH work together via an Interagency Agreement to provide for the psychiatric evaluation, care, and treatment of wards needing inpatient mental health services. DMH provides inpatient treatment services for 10 CYA wards over the age of eighteen at the state hospitals (ASH, MSH, NSH and PSH) and has assumed the operation of a psychiatric treatment program at SYCRCC for 20 wards needing short term, intensive psychiatric services from an interdisciplinary treatment team according to the procedures outlined in the various Memorandums of Understanding.

Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development:

DMH sponsors Psychiatric Technician Taskforce meetings which include the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) to address the shortage of Psychiatric Technicians (PT) in the DMH and statewide. OSHPD has been valuable in helping to identify funding sources for the new PT programs being developed and to provide pertinent resource information for these new programs.

Local Agencies:

The DMH state hospitals work with various city and county agencies on a variety of public safety and security issues. The County Mental Health Departments purchase beds at the state hospitals on an annual basis. The hospitals strive to be good neighbors and active members of the community.