To make sure it will continue its services while trying to address significant staffing issues, the center, according to its Director Josephine T. Sablan, will focus on “crisis counseling” in which clients will be treated based on acuity and severity of their conditions.
She announced this new policy during the mental health planning council meeting last Feb. 25 as part of their efforts to reorganize services to better serve its partner agencies and the community.
Last year, the center lost three of its five mental health counselors, one of its three substance abuse counselors and its two intake workers.
Over the next few months, the center’s clinic staff will be reduced further and it will be left with only one psychiatrist, one substance abuse counselor, one mental health counselor and one intake worker.
The center, Sablan said, will continue to provide brief crisis interventions, substance abuse 12-step program consultation, stress management seminars, medication management, psychiatric assessment, case management and referral services, smoking cessation and prevention outreach services.
Sablan said they have revised the procedures in providing their services.
In a separate interview yesterday, acting center director Matilde Rosario said only clients facing life and death situations will be attended right away.
The treatment for those who don’t have serious cases will be scheduled, she added.
Sablan said all referrals for non-emergency services will also be placed on a waiting list based on the anticipated hiring of new counselors.
This means that the waiting time may be extended indefinitely.
“We encourage all of our partners to begin exploring options within your agencies for the provision of mental health services. It is our hope that as we work together to weather this storm, we will emerge stronger and better able to meet the mental health needs of our clients and the community as a whole,” Sablan said.
