The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to sponsor state legislation to change a law that bars paramedics from taking patients to mental health urgent care and sobering centers.
Under the law, which was branded as “outdated” by one county official, paramedics are required to take patients with psychiatric needs only to hospital emergency departments or 9-1-1 receiving units.
Supervisor Janice Hahn, who introduced the motion to support the legislation, said the irony was that police officers and sheriff’s deputies — but not paramedics — can take those who are intoxicated or experiencing a mental health episode to centers that can help them.
“This practice adds to our overcrowding in our emergency room,” Hahn said of the state law. “I think it’s time to alter that law.”