> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# ER doctors to be trained for psychiatric holds under LA County pilot
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/er-doctors-to-be-trained-for-psychiatric-holds-under-la-county-pilot/
- Published: 2026-08-21T18:59:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-21T18:58:59.000Z
- Author: Maaz Alin
- Tags: Government & Politics, LA County

Emergency room physicians at five private Los Angeles County hospitals will be trained and authorized to place patients on 5150 psychiatric holds under a pilot program approved by the county Board of Supervisors.

The motion, authored by Supervisor Janice Hahn and co-authored by Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath, aims to free the county's mental health crisis teams to respond faster to emergencies in the community.

A 5150 hold allows authorized professionals to detain a person against their will for a psychiatric evaluation for up to 72 hours when they pose a risk to themselves or others.

The county has spent recent years expanding its Alternative Crisis Response system, which dispatches mental health professionals rather than armed law enforcement to people in crisis. It now operates 71 mobile crisis response teams around the clock.

As more residents call 988 and the county's mental health crisis line, calls to law enforcement have declined. Between 2023 and 2025, mental-health-related calls to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department fell 16%, and arrests from those calls dropped 24%. Referrals from the crisis line for mobile responses rose 31% over the same period.

One drain on crisis teams comes from private hospital emergency rooms that call for help initiating holds. County crisis teams spend an average of 1,100 hours each month conducting 5150 evaluations at hospitals.

While county hospitals have long had authorized staff, a 2025 state law, Assembly Bill 416, only recently allowed private hospital ER doctors to become LPS-authorized to initiate the holds. At least 35 private hospitals across the county lack LPS-authorized physicians and rely on the county's Psychiatric Mobile Response Teams.

"Every hour our crisis teams spend inside an emergency room is an hour they aren't out in the community responding to someone who is having a mental health emergency in their home or on the street," Hahn said. "If a patient is already in an emergency room, we should empower trained ER doctors to evaluate them and initiate a 5150 hold, rather than making them wait for a County crisis team to arrive."

The pilot will begin at the five hospitals that most rely on county teams for evaluations: Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, Providence Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, UCI Health in Lakewood, Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center in Torrance and UCLA West Valley Medical Center.

The motion directs the county Department of Mental Health to develop a plan to expand training to all eligible non-county hospitals by the end of 2027.

"When someone is already in an emergency department, we should be using the expertise of the physician at their bedside while preserving our mobile crisis teams for people who need help in the community," Horvath said.

The department must report to the board within 120 days on the pilot's implementation, including hospital participation and any barriers, and provide quarterly updates thereafter.

Edited by SMDP Staff