A San Diego County sheriff and mental health experts have raised alarms about the potential loss of funding for mobile mental health crisis teams, according to a report by the Times of San Diego.
The concern centers on the state budget, which experts say would cut funding that currently supports mobile crisis response units. These teams are typically deployed to mental health emergencies as an alternative or supplement to traditional law enforcement response.
The loss of such teams could affect how the county handles mental health calls in the field. Mobile crisis teams have gained attention across the country in recent years as jurisdictions look for ways to send trained mental health professionals to certain calls rather than, or alongside, armed officers.
Officials quoted in the report described the potential funding loss as a serious setback. The Times of San Diego did not include specific dollar figures or timeline details in the available source material, but the report made clear that both law enforcement and health professionals viewed the proposed cuts as a threat to services that residents currently rely on.
The state budget process was ongoing at the time of the report, leaving the final funding decisions unresolved.
