AUSTIN, Texas — As Austin continues to deal with homelessness on our streets, the Office of the City Auditor found several examples of how Austin is not doing enough to address mental health for its citizens.
Representatives from the Office of the City Auditor presented a new audit on mental health to the City's Audit and Finance Committee on Wednesday.
The audit noted several deficiencies within the City pertaining to how mental health issues are handled, which includes noting staff comments that the City does not have a recognized definition of "mental health."
As part of the report, auditors note Austin does not do enough to quantify the need for mental health services in the city.
"We did not see that City departments were collecting data specific to mental health services," the audit reads. "If the City does not know the need for mental health services, it may not know if the funding provided is effective at addressing community needs."
Another problem outlined in the audit highlights inconsistent mental health training for employees across different departments in the city.
"City staff reported receiving relevant training for making these referrals," auditors said in the report. "However, the level of training varied among departments."
Auditors suggest the City improve mental health training for employees to create more consistency when staff encounters mental health-related issues in the community.
That suggestion, made to the assistant city manager for health and environment, mentions that the department should identify baseline training for employees and determine which departments and staff would benefit from the training.
Another suggestion in the audit encourages tracking mental health-related issues and referrals to create more data, which should help determine where the City needs mental health-related resources and how much money to allocate there.
The City's Audit and Finance Committee approved the audit on the condition that information be added about how much the City currently budgets for mental health services.
A representative from the Office of the City Auditor said the final version of the audit should be posted online on Friday.
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