Mobile mental health teams can now respond to Sonoma Valley

Following the shooting of a deputy and a Taser-related death last year in Sonoma Valley, where the Sonoma County Mobile Support Team (MST) was requested but could not respond, Sonoma County has now increased the emergency response team’s service area, effective Jan. 15.

The Mobile Support Team provides support to law enforcement officers responding to a behavioral health emergency, if called in by law enforcement. But until last week, only the “highway 101 corridor,” from Petaluma to Windsor, could request and receive MST support.

Spencer Crum, spokesperson for the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, said, “We are told now that they will respond as far east to Sonoma and as far west as to Guerneville,” giving both the Sonoma Valley and the Russian River area the same mental health emergency support that the heart of the county has enjoyed.

The expanded service areas for Sonoma Valley will run from Kenwood to Glen Ellen down through Boyes Hot Springs and Sonoma.

For the west county, two MST members will be located at the Community Mental Health Center in Guerneville for quicker response to emergency calls. For the Sonoma Valley, however, there will not be a local station to provide service, and the actual operation of MST support appears to be still in flux.

According Rohish Lal of the county’s Department of Health Services, “One staff member from the Petaluma office will be dedicated to support Sonoma Valley,” from an office shared with the Petaluma Community Mental Health Center.

Since the expanded area of coverage is new, it could evolve over time. “Because this service is new in the Valley we will be evaluating demand and need for staff to be located there,” said Lal. He estimated the response time from Petaluma to the Valley at about half an hour.

Sonoma Valley residents have a particular interest in the increase in mental health support services, as two incidents close in proximity and in time in 2018 resulted in the death of a mentally disturbed man and, in the second case, the shooting of a sheriff’s deputy and the long-term confinement of his accused assailant.

On March 28, 2018, hours after Rod Cameron visited a psychiatrist for blood tests and medication to gauge his mental health, neighbors reported that the 320-pound man was roaming the Sonoma Oaks mobile homes neighborhood naked, screaming and punching out decorative street lights with his bare hands.

Responding deputies twice called for backup and, only after administering three Taser shocks and restraining him, seven deputies finally managed to get Cameron under control.

They then noticed he had stopped breathing. They administered CPR and took him to Sonoma Valley Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Less than two months later, on May 12, Randy Pritel called county health services to request help in getting his 20-year-old son, Ryan, treatment, or even confinement, so that he would not harm anyone. Randy Pritel was at first told health services would be able to respond. But when he told the dispatcher his address was in Sonoma, she informed him that county emergency support was not available in the Sonoma Valley.

The next day, Ryan Pritel took a gun to work at the Jolly Washer car wash on Highway 12. His employers called the Sheriff’s department but when deputies arrived, a shoot-out ensued, culminating in non-fatal injuries to Sheriff’s Deputy Mike Matelli.

Ryan Pritel was arrested and booked into the Sonoma County jail on charges of attempted murder and carrying a loaded firearm. He is still in custody, though mental health competency evaluations judged him unfit for trial.

Whether or not the Mobile Support Team would have been permitted to engage at the scene of either of these incidences would be conditional on the situation: team members are usually mental health clinicians, certified substance abuse specialists, post-graduate registered interns and others social services personnel. And law enforcement is reluctant to allow untrained personnel – i.e. non-deputies or police – into a crisis situation.

“Obviously, we had some tragic outcomes in Sonoma Valley last year and it became quite obvious that we needed to make the budget allocations,” said 1st District Supervisor Susan Gorin. “It was during the June budget discussions that we really made the decision to find the additional funding for this.”

Pressure from a majority of the Board of Supervisors, including Gorin, along with supervisors Shirlee Zane and Lynda Hopkins – whose 4th District covers the west county – overrode the initial proposal for a cut of $7 million in the mental health services budget from the Department of Health Services. The DHS’s overall budget rose to almost $161 million, above the $150 million requested.

The supervisors specifically authorized a larger budget to allow for greater areas of coverage for the Mobile Services Team, from $1,473,084 last year to this year’s projected $1,989,398, a difference of a little over $500,000.

Just how effectively the MST can be deployed to these new areas of service, and whether or not there would be separate response teams for the 101 corridor, West County and the Sonoma Valley, has yet to be fully fleshed out.

Gorin emphasized the need to embed those services in the community.

“It wasn’t just providing people,” said Gorin. “You get the people there, where would they work? Are they going to be on call on an emergency basis? Are they going to be doing other things?”

Gorin stressed the importance of making clear in what situations mental-health services would be called.

“I think we have to be careful to communicate to our community that there are situations where it may not be possible to use the MST team services, because of immediate threat to life safety,” said Gorin. “The decision to call them in is always made by law enforcement.”

The supervisor added, “It’s not a cure-all, and the law enforcement has made clear that their first priority... is not to put non-professionals at risk.”

Contact Christian at christian.kallen@msn.com.