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Council Member Lee's concerns about mental health service coordination
1:08:58
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118 sec
Council Member Lee expresses frustration about the lack of clear oversight for mental health programs and the challenges in coordinating services across agencies. She emphasizes the need for a comprehensive approach to address the needs of individuals requiring multiple services.
- Lee points out the absence of a clear overseer for all mental health programs
- She highlights the importance of coordinated services for individuals with multiple needs
- Lee requests more comprehensive information on citywide investments in mental health services
- Dr. Morse acknowledges the challenge and mentions the single point of access program as an attempt to address this issue
Linda Lee
1:08:58
Okay.
1:08:58
Because during our budget hearing with OMB, especially around the contracting piece, they were saying that's largely with DOHMH.
1:09:05
So my concern is that I feel like there's no clear sort of overseer of all the buckets of mental health programs and I know that technically OCMH's role is to do that, however even when I speak with them, they seem like they're limited in terms of how much reach they have with the budget as well as coordination.
1:09:27
So I just want to make that point because I really, really, really hope that when it comes to the coordination of services, because as we all know, you know, I'm a whole person, right?
1:09:39
So I may need homeless services, I may need drug addiction services, as well as mental health services, and I may be physically disabled and need help getting there.
1:09:50
So me as a whole person, I'm just saying that it's a little frustrating for me to coordinate, and if we're thinking of offering the best care to our city and folks that deserve it, it's a little difficult to navigate.
1:10:07
And if it is possible, I don't know if this is possible on your end, but if it is possible to get numbers from other agencies and also get a sense of where their budgets are, I think that would be great.
1:10:19
I don't know if that lies with you all or if it lies with OCMH, but I just need to get some understanding of how much the total investments citywide are in terms of mental health services.
Michelle Morse
1:10:30
Yeah I do understand the challenge.
1:10:32
Think what our CFO shared, OMB really holds most of that information.
1:10:37
We don't have access to the budgets of our sister agencies in an easy way.
1:10:42
But I would also share that we do have programs like our single point of access program that really does attempt to have a one stop shop for a lot of mental health services even though it's not every service that we offer.
Linda Lee
1:10:56
No, I appreciate that.