Data shows special clinics keep mental health patients out of jail, ER

People come to this mental health urgent care center, across from County/USC hospital, with a range of mental health needs. Some need a refill of their psychiatric medications. Others have been placed on involuntary psychiatric holds and can remain here up to 23 hours.

LA county mental health patients who visited an urgent care clinic stayed out of jail and psychiatric emergency rooms for the following month, according to county data.

Los Angeles County mental health clinics are keeping patients from ending up in jail or an emergency room, according to data collected by the county and an agency that runs two of the clinics.

Currently, there are four mental health urgent care clinics that collectively serve 23,000 Los Angeles County patients a year. A fifth is expected to open on Thursday on the campus of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital.

Almost all county mental health patients who visited an urgent care clinic stayed out of jail and psychiatric emergency rooms for the following month, according to county data.

Read the full story: Special clinics help keep mentally ill out of jail and ERs