He added the suicide prevention team is one of the only programs seeing an increase in allocated funds as a $787 million shortfall rips into the region\u2019s primary provider of social safety net services.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe state has decided it\u2019s more effective to implement suicide prevention on a statewide basis through the California Department of Public Health,\u201d Williams said at the meeting. \u201cAs I\u2019ve said before, and we\u2019ll reiterate it now: For a county like ours, we don\u2019t agree with that philosophical approach and we have formally asked the state to pass that funding back to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
County leaders originally asked supervisors<\/a> to approve cutting four positions from the suicide prevention team, which roused uproar among experts and community leaders who heralded the county program as a lifesaving service. Williams said the two jobs being cut are data-focused and analytical positions, and that revised proposals for the suicide prevention team\u2019s budget should ensure minimal disruption to its existing work.<\/p>\n Board President Otto Lee called the proposal a matter of \u201clife and death.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of things we deal with is in dollars and cents, but if the reduction in service is relating to suicide prevention, that is probably going to lead to more deaths,\u201d he said at the meeting.<\/p>\n Vic Ojakian, an outspoken suicide prevention advocate and former Palo Alto councilmember, said the changes are a good start. Ojakian opposed the cuts amid outrage that the program\u2019s work could be hamstrung or even undone. He has touted the program as an innovative model whose reporting and intervention work has been copied statewide and nationally.<\/p>\n The program is also the reason every city in Santa Clara County\u00a0has a suicide prevention policy on the books as of 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ojakian said he\u2019s skeptical that the state\u2019s realignment of suicide prevention work will maintain Santa Clara County program\u2019s momentum of progress.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve asked the people in the California Office of Suicide Prevention what they\u2019re doing about older adults and they gave me a blank stare,\u201d Ojakian said at the meeting. \u201cI\u2019m concerned because the (county) public health department\u00a0has done very little to prepare for the transition \u2026 Are people safer in this county by doing what\u2019s being proposed? No, they\u2019re not. They\u2019re more at risk and we need to not let that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"In-line](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/interactive-321838904008.png\")
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