Latest news with #BreakingtheCycle
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Lurie secures grant funding to expand mental health, addiction treatment
The Brief Mayor Daniel Lurie has secured millions of dollars to expand San Francisco's behavioral health programs. The money will add 73 new treatment beds to two facilities that treat behavioral and mental health, as well as addiction issues. The expansion is another step in Lurie's "Break the Cycle" plan to address homelessness and addiction. SAN FRANCISCO - Mayor Daniel Lurie today announced a plan to expand San Francisco's behavioral health resources thanks to $27.6 million in state funding. The money will allow Lurie to further deliver on his "Breaking the Cycle" plan to transform San Francisco's response to behavioral health and the needs of its unhoused residents. "Under our Breaking the Cycle Plan, my administration is taking full advantage of every available resource to get people who are suffering off the streets, while reclaiming our public spaces," Lurie said in a press release. " This state is funding a strong first step that will allow us to add some of the beds and services our city needs most — including an expansion of locked subacute treatment for those with complex behavioral health needs. This s how we build a stronger behavioral health system, keep neighborhoods safe and clean, and help people find lasting stability." Dig deeper The money, provided by the Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program, will go toward two projects: locked subacute treatment beds, and dual diagnosis treatment beds. Just over $21 million will go toward expanding capacity at the Behavioral Health Center on the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital Campus by adding 57 treatment beds. Locked subacute treatment beds, also called mental health rehabilitation centers, offer 24/7 intensive psychiatric care, nursing care and psychosocial rehabilitation services to adults with severe mental illnesses, or those placed under conservatorship. Locked treatment facilities require high building standards, which makes constructing new facilities difficult. The San Francisco General Hospital Behavioral Health Center was built as a locked treatment facility, and the BHCIP funding will complete critical renovations that will expand its capacity. The remaining $6 million will reopen the 7th Street Dual Diagnosis residential treatment program, which has 16 beds to serve individuals with both mental health and substance abuse disorders. That facility was previously operated as a behavioral health dual diagnosis program but was acquired by the city in 2024 as part of the debt settlement with the prior provider. "To truly address our behavioral health crisis and provide every individual with a real chance at a healthier, more stable future, we must have the beds and the services at the right levels of care," Daniel Tsai, the director of the department of public health said in a press release. "Here in San Francisco we are taking necessary and bold steps to build a more responsive behavioral health system, and we thank the state for recognizing that the scale of this crisis requires more than local action. The capital funding from the state is essential to our ability to expand local treatment capacity for our most behaviorally complex clients." The backstory Lurie in March announced his "Breaking the Cycle" plan, so named because it aims to break the cycles of homelessness and addiction by "fundamentally transforming" the city's health and homelessness response. Within the first 100 days of enacting the plan, Lurie said his administration will streamline moving people from the street into shelters and permanent housing, including launching a new model for outreach teams and reforming how people move through the city's system. While the plan calls for getting people off the streets and connected with the services they need, Lurie said it will also "Keep our public spaces safe and clean... and hold city hall and our partners accountable for results." Within six months, Lurie said he plans to add more beds in shelters and partner with nonprofits to improve services. Within a year, he said, he plans to leverage state and federal funds to expand and improve health and homelessness services, reform the city's data and technology systems and review the organizational structure of the city's health, homelessness, human services and housing programs. What they're saying Advocates say his plan, rather than breaking the cycle, perpetuates a very familiar one. Jennifer Friedenbach of the Coalition on Homelessness said Lurie's approach uses the same methods as his predecessors. She said his office would be better served by following evidence-based methods to address homelessness and mental health issues.
CBS News
19-03-2025
- Health
- CBS News
San Francisco health officials reassess strategies as overdose deaths increase
The San Francisco Department of Public Health is planning to modify certain parts of its harm reduction strategies in tackling the city's drug overdose crisis, the department said Tuesday while announcing last month's number of drug overdose deaths. A preliminary count revealed that 61 people died last month from accidental drug overdose, nearly the same amount as February 2024 when 63 people died from overdose. February's preliminary number of overdose deaths is slightly higher than January 2025, when 57 people died. San Francisco Department of Public Health director Daniel Tsai made the announcement during a press conference on Tuesday, just three weeks into his new position after being appointed by Mayor Daniel Lurie. "What this really underscores is how urgent and important this work is that we have at the department," Tsai said. "Every one of those 61 deaths is unacceptable. It's preventable, and we as a department are going to be doing everything possible to tackling this epidemic." Tsai is attempting to navigate the city's response to preventing overdose deaths through reassessing strategies already in place, including aspects of harm reduction. "When I'm in discussions with our providers, clinicians, and others, people affirm the work happening with many of our providers and partners across the city," Tsai said. "But almost everyone agrees that something has to change." While he did not specify details of an exact plan, the department intends to alter its policy of handing out supplies like foil and straws in public areas used for smoking substances such as fentanyl. Fentanyl, a highly potent synthetic opioid, has contributed to the majority of overdose deaths in recent years. "The policy that we will pivot on is distributing smoking supplies like foil, pipes, straws, particularly in public spaces," Tsai said. Researchers at University of California, San Francisco have found that smoking fentanyl increases the risk of fatal overdose due to the resin that accumulates in smoking paraphernalia. Sharing smoking devices that contain fentanyl residue could be just as if not more deadly than sharing needles, according to the 2024 paper authored by researchers at UCSF. Tsai made it clear that the department will continue its practice of supplying clean syringes used for injecting drugs in order to help reduce the spread of illnesses like hepatitis C and HIV. "San Francisco is not backing away in any way, shape or form from the tested, proven public health intervention of sterile syringe access, full stop," Tsai reaffirmed. Tsai's announcement comes one day after Lurie signed "Breaking the Cycle," a comprehensive strategy aimed at combating the overlapping issues of homelessness and drug addiction. The executive directive calls for more coordinated services, better measurement of outcomes, and accountability for government. The idea is to get more people off the street and connected to services, keep public spaces clean and safe, and better manage taxpayer resources. One aspect of the directive includes immediately modifying the city's policy of distributing clean smoking supplies, which garnered support from several supervisors. "Mayor Lurie's directive is taking aim at some sacred cows here -- from harm reduction to homelessness spending -- that quite frankly deserve scrutiny for why they've failed to achieve better outcomes," Supervisor Matt Dorsey said in a statement. "Reassessing fentanyl supply policies is a necessary step to prioritize treatment and recovery," said Supervisor Stephen Sherrill in the directive's press release. Tsai said that the department will release more details on its changes to supplying equipment used for smoking drugs in the near future. "My team will be meeting rapidly with a range of folks in the community over the coming week or week and a half before we roll out a more concrete policy pivot," Tsai said.
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
SF mayor unveils new ‘vision' for tackling homelessness, addiction
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — On Monday, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie unveiled what his office is calling a 'new vision' to tackle the city's homelessness and drug problem. The plan, which the mayor's office has dubbed 'Breaking the Cycle,' features a series of actions broken down by timeframe. The executive directive, which Lurie signed on Monday, is intended to outline a roadmap with immediate actions and longer-term reforms aimed at tackling SF's 'enduring homelessness and behavioral health crisis.' In the first 100 days of the plan, city departments will be responsible for actions that include launching a new street teams model, deploying emergency housing vouchers, reassessing policies for distribution of fentanyl smoking in public spaces, and merging the Journey Home and Homeward Bound programs, among other things. Chuck Schumer book tour postponed, including SF event In the first six months of the program, the mayor is instructing city departments to expand short-term response capacity by 1,500, expand treatment capacity, improve case management, and encourage regional partners to build capacity to meet responsibility for their residents. Within a year, the plan aims to maximize Medi-Cal, CalAIM and Prop 1 benefits, improve technology and data systems and evaluate the city's current organizational structure for health, homelessness, and human services, and housing programs. 'These reforms will better support the city's most vulnerable residents while keeping public spaces safe and clean and ensuring responsible management of taxpayer resources,' Lurie's office said. The new roadmap, Lurie's office said, builds on work his administration has already been doing since the mayor announced the 'Fentanyl State of Emergency Ordinance' on his first day in office. 'I believe our city must be judged by how we care for our most vulnerable residents, and today, we are outlining immediate actions and long-term reforms to address the crisis on our streets,' Mayor Lurie said. 'This directive will break the cycle of homelessness, addiction, and government failure by transforming our homelessness and behavioral health response.' The mayor promised to being in a 'new era of accountability' and deliver outcomes designed to 'get people off the street and into stability.' Despite millions, and possibly billions, of dollars being spent over several decades, San Francisco is still faced with a persistent homelessness, drugs, and behavioral health crisis. According to the mayor's office, roughly two people die every day from overdose in the city.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
