A program of child and adult outreach triage teams, which supported people in urgent need and connected them to longer-term mental health services, was funded by state grants that expired in June. Los Angeles County declined to use its own funds to continue the services, shutting down the program, with an estimated $15 million to be returned to the state.
The dispute over how L.A. handled the triage teams highlights how counties in California fund mental health services. New ideas are often funded temporarily, then abandoned as county leaders fail to come up with plans to sustain them before the money dries up.
Read more at the Los Angeles Times.