San Mateo County Mental Health Services Agency

Mental Health ACCESS Team

Office Hours: Monday to Friday 8:00am to 5:00pm

Address: 3080 La Selva, San Mateo, CA 94403

Phone: (800) 686 0101

Centralized 800-line Call Center for SMC

• Providing access to County mental health services for Mental Health Plan members and for seriously mentally ill individuals.
• Assistance on how to make the best use of resources to meet individual needs.

ACCESS Unit Clinicians

• Provide mental health clinical assessment and referral to services in the mental health system. Address requests from consumers, community agencies, hospitals, physicians and schools.
  
• Coordinate client care and information across systems (system car management). 
  
• Help clients and families obtain needed services.
  
• Develop an understanding of client services already being used and help with linkages.
  
  

Managed Care for SMC Mental Health Plan

• Mental Health Plan participants include beneficiares of:
• Medi-Cal
• Healthy Families
• HealthWorx
• Healthy Kids Programs
• Determine eligibility and assess need for services based on medical necessity criteria
• Authorize type and number of mental health specialty services required
• Provide linkage to authorized mental health providers in the community
• May refer back to Primary Care Physicians for some medication needs

Services and treatement for the Indigent Seriously and Persistently Mentally Ill (SMI)

• Front end of community mental health intake and assessment for seriously mentally ill clients
• ACCESS provides assessment and consultation for medication management, education and review
• Psychiatric Emergency Services (PES), for those with significant impairment and immediate high risk of injury to self or others can be reached by calling (650) 573 2662 directly. Also, ACCESS makes referrals to PES. Their (800) 686 0101 line will automatically roll over to PES after business hours.

Mental Health ACCESS and Dual Diagnosis Units

• Work collaboratively with Substance Abuse Services and Providers
• Evaluate degree substance abuse mental health, differentiating treatment for
  • Clients primarily impaired from substance abuse, are more likely to respond to the short term transitional Dual Program, and referral to Primary Care Clinics
  • Clients who are seriously mentally ill (SMI) with concurrent substance abuse issues, are most likely to be referred to Regional Mental Health Care, after harm reduction and recovery philosophies to facilitate engagement with mental health services.