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Be Well FAQs
A. Be Well OC is a transformative initiative bringing together public, private, academic and faith-based organizations, as well as others, to create a coordinated system of mental health care and support for all Orange County residents. The Be Well OC mental health system, which also includes substance use services, spans across all cities of Orange County and a range of needs, from prevention and early intervention to crisis aversion, acute care and recovery.
A. The vision of Be Well is to develop a first-class behavioral health system for all Orange County residents.
- Reduce stigma: Improved mental health awareness, attitudes, and understanding throughout the Orange County community
- Prevent and act early: Effective prevention and early intervention services are available to all Orange County residents
- Close treatment gaps and improve access: All Orange County residents can access needed programs and services when and where they need them; emphasis on interorganizational transitions of care and warm connections
- Strengthen crisis response: All Orange County residents can access crisis support through a network of facilities, mobile teams, and digital tools
- Align partners, policies and programs: Addressing complex, interrelated issues of mental illness, addiction, and homelessness, among others
- Establish community Wellness Hubs: Coordinated, integrated, responsive health, behavioral health, and wellness services.
A. We encourage you to sign-up to be kept informed at bewelloc.org. You can also follow us on Be Well’s social channels.
NEED FOR INTEGRATED MENTAL HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
- Currently, one in five adults experiences a mental health issue in any given year
- One in 25 live with a serious mental illness
- One in 10 young people experience a major episode of depression in any given year
In Orange County, families are suffering in the face of increasing mental health and substance use disorders. For many families, these challenges have become devastating catastrophes.
- People cannot connect to the right care in the right place when they need it. Gaps in services, access and funding plague the mental health system, especially in terms of crisis intervention, acute care and addiction treatment.
- Fragmentation and health care silos contribute to service gaps and access challenges, limiting coordination, and maintaining competition among organizations, diluting the potential collective impact.
- Disparities and inequities in geographic service availability throughout the county.
- Available care is not always delivered optimally using evidence-based or expert-recommended best practices, which produces poor outcomes and inefficiencies, wasting financial resources.
- Lack of understanding regarding the importance and effectiveness of prevention and early intervention.
- Lack of hope and understanding that recovery and well-being are possible for those living with mental illness.
- Lack of knowledge about effective treatments and where to find the right help.
- Stigma negatively impacts hope and self-esteem, increases severity of psychiatric symptoms, and decreases outreach and engagement in treatment.
MIND OC OVERVIEW
A. Mind OC is a not-for-profit, 501(c)3 that serves as the central backbone within the Distributed Leadership structure for Be Well OC. Mind OC is a nimble, neutral entity that can convene, coordinate and align stakeholders to continually advance the Be Well OC Mental Health System. To learn more, visit the Mind OC website.
A. Be Well OC is the county-wide movement to transform the mental health system and ensure that all residents who need care get the right care, at the right time and in the right place. Mind OC serves as the central backbone within the distributed leadership structure for Be Well OC.
Mind OC helps to coordinate the backbone organizations committed to advancing the six result areas of the Blueprint.
A. Mind OC has three primary areas of focus:
- Mental health and wellness infrastructure development
- Optimize value and transparency in mental health and substance use disorder services
- Be Well OC sustainability and public/private partnerships
Mobile Response FAQs
A. The Be Well OC Mobile Response Program provides community-based assessment and stabilization of adults and adolescents experiencing mental health and substance use challenges, and other non-medical emergency challenges. Each team consists of two crisis counselors providing a compassionate first response model to get people the right help at the right time.
A. This service is designed to support law enforcement and EMS by providing specialized response to mental health crises, intoxication, welfare checks, and situations that don’t require law enforcement and EMS services.
A. The Be Well OC Mobile Response Team is prepared to help with a variety of non-emergency situations including:
- Mental health / behavioral crisis
- Suicidal ideation
- Non-domestic violence family issues / disputes
- Public assistance including lack of basic needs (food, shelter, water, clothing)
- Failure to conduct basic self-hygiene, failure to thrive
- Intoxication
- Welfare checks
- Death notification
- Homelessness, in conjunction and collaboration with local task forces
A. In active cities, when someone calls 911 or the non-emergency line for a mental health crisis that does not require medical care or is not a dangerous situation, the dispatcher will triage and when appropriate deploy the Be Well OC Mobile Response Team rather than police or EMS.
A. All staff are Be Well OC employees who specialize in crisis management and are trained in de-escalation techniques. Each van has a team of two crisis counselors who have passed background checks and other screening requirements, as determined by local police departments.
Emergency medical services (EMS) teams comprise various professionals, including EMTs and paramedics, who are trained to provide basic and advanced care to patients during a medical crisis and during their subsequent transportation to a healthcare facility.
The Be Well OC Mobile Response Team members have different skillsets than EMS teams. Skilled in de-escalation, crisis intervention, counseling, and mediation, the Be Well OC Mobile Response Team can effectively address both the emotional and social well-being of the client. This service is designed to support law enforcement and EMS in providing a specialized response to mental crises, intoxication, welfare checks, and the like, so they can focus on public safety and medical calls where they are needed most urgently.
A. The Be Well OC Mobile Response Teams are contracted directly through each individual city. We are currently in conversations with several cities throughout the county and will roll those programs out over the course of the next several months.
A. The Be Well OC Mobile Response Team is currently active in:
- Huntington Beach
- Garden Grove
- Anaheim
- Newport Beach
- Laguna Beach
- Irvine
- Westminster
Be Well OC has also activated teams in UCI.
A. The van is equipped with clothing, food and a private, secure space where mental health support can be provided in a discreet setting. If medical aid is required, the local fire department will be summoned to provide immediate care and transport to the appropriate medical facility.
A. The Be Well OC Mobile Response Team will respond to any crisis to which it’s dispatched. In some cases, those will be homeless related. While patients will only be transported on a voluntary basis, the Be Well OC Mobile Response Team can transport patients if they need additional care. Depending on the situation, this can include the Be Well OC Orange Campus, local hospitals, urgent care, a shelter, etc.
A. Most of the startup funding for the vans are funded through private community investment. Each of the Be Well OC Mobile Response Team programs are sustained by the individual cities in which they operate. If you are interested in supporting a van in your community, please contact Valerie Fryer.
Orange Campus FAQs
A. The Be Well OC Campus is the first visible sign of systems change for mental health and wellness in Orange County. It is located at 265 S. Anita Dr. in the City of Orange and is a 60,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art facility for mental health and substance use treatment services. Residents of Orange County can receive care, regardless of what insurance they have.
A. This is a true public, private partnership. Specific investors in the facility include the County of Orange, CalOptima, Kaiser Permanente, Hoag and Providence St. Joseph Health – including St. Jude Medical Center and St. Joseph Hospital.
A. The Be Well OC Orange Campus is the first visible sign of systems change for mental health and wellness in Orange County. There are plans for two additional campuses that may vary in services based on local, community needs.
A. The campus is 60,000 square-feet and is a state-of-the-art facility, designed to be a comprehensive, community-based center for mental health services.
A. Ensuring the Campus delivers an excellent community experience with demonstrably improved outcomes requires strong communication and enhanced coordination across multiple stakeholders. With that, Be Well OC engaged three critical stakeholder groups: (1) First Responders and Hospitals, (2) Community – Consumers/Patients and Families, (3) Clinical Professionals, Community-Based Services Organizations. Additionally, an Operations Steering Committee has been formed, comprised of clinical experts representing the investor partner organizations and essential stakeholders from the community. The feedback from these critical groups informed the operational plan for the Campus.
A. The campus has 93 beds and the capacity to treat about 100 people each day.
A. The Be Well Orange Campus features mental health crisis stabilization services, the County’s first sobering center, and quality residential care for both mental health and substance use treatment. An integrated support center offers resources to clients and their families and rounds out the excellent care that is the hallmark of the Be Well Experience.
While services at the Campus are designed primarily for adults, the Campus does offer crisis stabilization for adolescents as part of a continuum of care with Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) and other community-based organizations to provide additional services to that group.
A. No. To ensure that those needing care are directed to the right program or service, a referral is required. To obtain a referral, call the main Campus phone number (949-749-2500) and a care navigator will assist you.
A. The Be Well Campus is one part of a network of care in Orange County. Campus care navigators can assist in connecting those that need care to resources and services across the County.
A. If a patient needs critical care while receiving treatment at the Campus, they will be transferred to a local hospital.
A. The discharge plan for each individual is specific to the service that they receive. People receiving care will be carefully guided and assisted to the next most appropriate step in the continuum of care.
A. Care is covered through Medi-Cal if patients do not have insurance.
A. Yes, Be Well OC has always aimed to have three campuses in Orange County serving North, Central and South County regions.
