Los Angeles County's board of supervisors has approved a new pilot program that will encourage field-based mental health workers to come to the region, Pasadena Now reported April 4.
The program would provide incentives for these workers, including signing bonuses, extending and increasing existing bonuses, shift differential pay, a sabbatical program, flexible schedules and stipends for students seeking psychiatric technician certification.
The county already offers relaxed background checks, bonuses for field-based mental health positions and a student loan forgiveness program.
These incentives would be for mental health workers who are part of psychiatric mobile response teams, mobile crisis outreach teams, mental evaluation teams, school threat assessment response teams and other similar units, according to the publication.
"L.A. County has been working for the past few years to create a system where someone experiencing a mental health crisis gets the response they need when and where they need it," Janice Hahn, county board chair, told the publication. "Now we find ourselves in a situation where we have the infrastructure and funds in place, but we are having a hard time filling these mental health worker positions."