Wayne Mellinger, "Report on the HEART Action Team" Santa Barbara's Behavioral Wellness Commission

TO: Sharon Byrne, Chair of the Behavioral Wellness Commission

FROM: Wayne Martin Mellinger, Ph.D. First District Commissioner

RE: My visit with the HEART Team

DATE: 14 October 2020

The Housing, Empowerment, Action and Recovery Team (HEART) was chartered to address the present and expanding housing and treatment crisis facing clients and potential participants of the Department of Behavioral Wellness in Santa Barbara County The team has produced policy, program and capital recommendations for incorporation into the budget and programs of Behavioral Wellness.

I attended the bi-monthly meeting of the HEART action team on 14 October 2020, held via Zoom, which lasted an hour an a half.  My visit allowed me to observe a group that I used to be active in but had not attended for a several years.  When “systems change” was first introduced to the Department of Behavioral Wellness in 2014 I attended several action teams, including Crisis Action, Consumers and Family Members and HEART.

Five ago when I first attended this meeting there was not much happening yet. A typical meeting might have 6 or 7 people.  We all agreed that there was a drastic shortage of housing options in our County, especially for the hundreds of people on the streets that have severe mental health challenges.  We all hoped that new housing projects would emerge, especially those that would offer supportive housing.  At that time there were no housing projects in the pipeline.

What a marked change I found in the meeting today!  There were 20 people participating in the zoom meeting--many of whom are key players in housing issues locally.  Significant time was spent reviewing each of the many new housing projects that are emerging, in various levels of planning, development and occupation.  

Some of these new housing projects are completed and are currently being filled with Be Well clients coming off the streets.  The immediate concerns with these were with the levels of supportive care offered, the need for life skill training, how to bring trained peers into the supportive efforts and setting up the facilities to be accessible for tele-psychiatry.  Others housing projects were at different stages in the pipeline of planning and construction.  The meeting was filled with talk of grants from the state and federal agencies, and their accompanying acronyms (HEAP, ESG, etc).

I was very impressed with how much his action team had developed in the three years since I last attended;.  It was clear that there was a lot going on.  Just six years ago many people still wondered if it was appropriate for a department of behavioral wellness to be involved in housing its clients.  Today I witnessed a department fully engaged in housing efforts—writing grants for new housing projects, planning the construction of these facilities, placing clients into these units and ensuring that the levels of care were adequate to keep people housed.

Throughout the meeting I heard of how this Department is actively collaborating with other agencies and institutions in our community, including our County's CEO Office, local hospitals, both the City ad County Housing Authorities, Home for Good (a project of the United Way of Northern Santa Barbara County), Santa Maria[‘s Good Samaritan shelter, the District Attorney’s Office, the County's Housing and Community Development (HCD) Department,  as well as private agencies.  Several different subgroups from the Behavioral Wellness department were involved in the meeting, including the MHSA team.

I heard a sophisticated knowledge of the complications involved in housing people with “complex lives” and keeping them housed. As is well known, people who have serious mental health challenges, have been chronically homeless, have substance use issues,  and have a long history of involvement with the criminal justice system are notoriously a challenge to get into housing and to keep housed.

Partnerships of all kinds were apparent throughout the meeting.  It was clear that Bee Well skillfully draws upon the expertise of others in getting people housed.

The director of the Behavioral Wellness Department, Alice Gleghorn, has provided significant leadership on these concerns and she has been instrumental in changing this department's engagement with housing issues.  Dr. Gleghorn has strategically put herself in the center of the County's housing concerns.  She sits on various community housing boards and committees, including the County’s HUD-mandated Continuum of Care, which oversees housing policy for our unhoused neighbors.  

Laura Zeitz and Lindsay Walter have proven to be skilled leaders in this action team and exhibited vast knowledge of the issues and concerns.  Overall, the level of expertise that the key players at the meeting exhibited was state of the art.  The other participants included Chuck Flacks, Emily Allen, Lindsay Walter, Jan Winter, Gordon Achinloss, Jennifer Newbold, Lynne Gibbs, Sylvia Barnard, among others

In conclusion, I found that the HEART action team is doing outstanding work and I was greatly impressed by what I heard today in the meeting.  Santa Barbara County’s Department of Behavioral Wellness is fully engaged in attempting to house its clients, working collaboratively with many others in our community and has developed skilled leaders to do this work. 

This is not to say that the problems are almost solved, nor that many big challenges still face our community as we attempt to end homelessness and eliminate the massive suffering of our neighbors on the streets.  In the past 10 years I feel that we have been just treading water, only making enough investments in these issues to prevent things from getting much worse. This in itself is an accomplishment as many of our neighboring communities have seen a significant rise in homelessness.

Ultimately, we need to see our County’s Board of Supervisors financially commit to finding housing solutions for our community and significantly increase the funding for these projects.  Only a massive investment in affordable housing in our community will solve these issues.

HEART meets the second Wednesday of the month from 1 - 2:30 pm, via video conference at the Santa Barbara Administration Conference Room 261 and the Santa Barbara Foster Road Annex  (check with Lucero at lugarcia@co.santa-barbara.ca.us on the dates for this year).    Confirm meeting time and location prior to attendance by contacting one of the following: Laura Zeitz, RN, (805) 452 2760, lazeitz@co.santa-barbara.ca.us

NOTE ON PICTURE:  This painting is called "The Wounded Healer" (2019). In my essay "The Gift of Our Wounds" (Noozhawk 2013), I write: A “wounded healer” is an individual who is able to draw upon their own experiences with suffering as a resource for helping others through the process of healing. A wounded healer has discovered the gifts of their own wounds." In 2007 when I began doing social work with mentally ill people living on the streets I became a wounded healer I have learned that our wounds can be learning opportunities that make us who we are.