Long Beach will study the feasibility of establishing a more robust infrastructure for mental health services in the city at the direction of the Long Beach City Council Tuesday.
Vice Mayor Rex Richardson, who authored the item, noted the increasing importance of mental health post-pandemic. During a presentation, he highlighted rising rates of anxiety and depression among youth and the inability for persons experiencing homelessness to access resources.
“The system is difficult to navigate,” Richardson said. “It allows too many cracks to slip through.”
The item directs the city manager to work with the Long Beach Health Department, Los Angeles Health Department and local providers to find options to streamline their services and prevent redundancies.
Both Councilmembers Suzie Price and Stacy Mungo-Flanigan noted that they had brought numerous items to the council related to mental health in the past few years, many of which were deemed “infeasible.”
City Manager Tom Modica said that staff will look back at past proposals to see if additional resources are available.
“Mental health is huge and it is an amazing opportunity. It is also a huge undertaking,” Mungo-Flanigan said. “We need to make sure that if we’re going to do this, it needs to be something that has the staffing and the long term support.”
City Manager Tom Modica said that he would figure out the cost of the feasibility study, which may require consultants. He said City staff would put together “that feasibility report of how we would address it and then get funding.”
The item comes almost a week after Community Hospital Long Beach announced that it will phase out its emergency department in favor of increased mental health and wellness offerings—one partnership that could bolster the City’s mental health offerings.
The Health and Human Services Department, which runs things like homeless services and mental health awareness campaigns, is almost entirely grant funded.
“Obviously, funding is an issue. And I want to learn more about where that access and those opportunities are,” Councilmember Al Austin said. “A lot of our goals here at the City Council are aspirational. But you know, if the funding is there it can be achievable.”
Richardson said that, despite the challenges, the City should look into taking control of its mental health services.
“Cities are already taking on, today, more than they’ve ever taken on. The truth is, things have changed. There’s no going back to the basics,” Richardson said. “The definition of what we consider a basic need has fundamentally changed. Local government has to evolve to meet that need.”
