EDC has help for severely mentally ill residents
For El Dorado County residents with the most severe forms of mental illness, the Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) program (also known as the Laura’s Law program), is available.
The program, coordinated through the El Dorado County Behavioral Health Division of the Health and Human Services Agency, gives additional tools to families, agencies and individuals to get people who need mental health treatment into those services.It
It recognizes that some people with the most severe forms of mental illness may need help in understanding that they need treatment.
The AOT program uses a community-based, case management model to assist the seriously mentally ill with placement into mental health treatment. The program works with clients to seek voluntary participation whenever possible, but can utilize the court system if needed to leverage that treatment.
To be eligible for the AOT program, an individual must be evaluated to see if they could benefit from treatment and if they meet specific criteria.
For more information, call 530.573.7970 in South Lake Tahoe.
El Dorado County in SLT also has a FEP (First Episode Psychosis) program. This program is open to everyone – whether you have private insurance or Medi-Cal – the county received a grant. So, if your loved one is experiencing symptoms of FEP this is an opportunity to help preserve life-long cognition by getting treatment promptly. Each psychotic episode causes brain damage.
Somes studies of early episode psychosis in schizophrenia illustrate approx 1.1% loss of gray/white matter is lost from the “thinking part” of the brain from that psychosis..and each psychosis continues to cause further brain damage.
Go go go – get treatment fast. Anti-psychotic medication acts as a wrapper around the brain to preserve cognition. Family’s play an integral role in helping their loved ones. Learn more at NAMI.org or play this 41-min video from PsychU.org to learn why long-lasting-injectables are the gold standard for treatment of psychosis.
https://www.psychu.org/treatment-schizophrenia-focus-psychopharmacology-adherence/