NAMI Santa Barbara

08/15/2025

See this CBS interview with FASMI on the President's Executive Order on Homelessness. FASMI is Families Advocating for the Seriously Mentally Ill.

President Trump has identified mental illness as one of the root causes of homelessness and promoted forced commitment as a solution in an executive order targeting the issue that he signed last month. But a group of mental health advocates said the approach is lacking humanity.

05/21/2025

https://www.independent.com/2025/05/20/northern-santa-barbara-county-to-get-96-bed-acute-care-facility/

Signet Health Central Coast gets state bond money for its $25 million proposal while the county’s two applications come up empty.

04/02/2025

https://www.noozhawk.com/county-supervisors-vote-to-add-beds-to-northern-branch-jail/

The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted to add more beds to the Northern Branch Jail after a long and complicated meeting on Tuesday. The

04/02/2025

https://www.ksby.com/santa-barbara-south-coast/santa-barbara-county-supervisors-discuss-adding-beds-at-county-jails

In a Tuesday meeting of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, the sheriff’s office requested the board vote on expanding beds at county jails in Santa Barbara and Santa Maria.

11/07/2024

https://www.independent.com/2024/11/06/why-we-need-mental-health-treatment-beds/

While no one wants our loved ones subject to an involuntary placement, it is sometimes literally a matter of life or death for the most ill until they can regain their capacity for self care.

11/02/2024

"According to a 2023 study by KFF (formerly Kaiser Family Foundation) of people insured by Affordable Care Act plans, less than two-tenths of 1% of people who were denied treatment filed an appeal with their health plans."

Ryan Matlock died within days of being released from a California addiction treatment center after his health plan declined to cover his extended stay.

10/21/2024

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/20/health/los-angeles-homeless-psychiatry.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Tk4.ElZL.L0j2YVhQFtNV&smid=em-share

The crisis of homelessness is pushing American psychiatry to places it has not gone before — like sidewalk injections of antipsychotics.

10/05/2024

The California program is marking one year since it first rolled out in seven counties. It was billed as a way to get people with untreated schizophrenia and associated disorders — particularly those experiencing street homelessness — into services and housing.

09/14/2024

https://sanjosespotlight.com/op-ed-proposition-36-is-a-backward-mass-incarceration-plan-that-solves-nothing/

As leaders of organizations and agencies that support those impacted by mass incarceration, poverty and substance use, we have a loud and urgent call to stop Proposition 36 and the irrevocable damage it will bring to our entire community if passed. The proposition is falsely guised as an attempt to....

09/11/2024

https://www.independent.com/2024/09/10/new-psych-hospital-for-santa-barbara-county-on-planning-boards/

The county has until to December to submit its funding plans to the state for a bigger, brand-new Psychiatric Health Facility for those deemed a risk to themselves or others.

09/09/2024

https://sfstandard.com/2024/09/09/san-francisco-overdose-deaths-horrifying-discovery/?utm_source=email_sitebutton

More than 700 people have fatally overdosed on San Francisco's streets. Some residents say they're desensitized to finding death on their doorsteps. Others are forever haunted.