The nationwide 211 telephone health and social services referral
line is creeping stealthily northward from Los Angeles and will
arrive in Santa Barbara County on Friday.
But residents of San Luis Obispo County still have a year or
longer to wait before they can use the line.
Evan Mendelson, the new executive director of the San Luis Obispo
Hotline, wants people in the county -- especially South County -- to
know that a 211 call isn't going to do them any good Friday,
although the folks across the Santa Maria River in Santa Barbara
County will be able to take advantage of the new resource.
The 211 line was authorized by the Federal Communications
Commission on July 21, 2000. Authorities say it takes some pressure
off the 911 line, which should be used for emergencies but often has
to handle calls that are not urgent.
San Luis Obispo County is behind other areas in the state in
getting the 211 line up and running, Mendelson said. The nonprofit
Hotline, she said, has "been going through transitions." It has had
several executive directors in recent years, for example.
However, she has been meeting this week with those who are likely
to be directly involved with 211. That includes law enforcement,
community service groups and the county Board of Supervisors, which
will decide who administers 211 here.
Mendelson said she will work with them to establish an
implementation committee. She hopes 211 can be up and running in San
Luis Obispo County in 12 to 18 months.
The new line will be like a referral service, Mendelson said. It
will help all sorts of people: those frustrated and frightened by a
substance-abusing teenager; middle-aged couples worried about their
elderly parents; people seeking child care or who suspect child
abuse; even the unemployed seeking a hand with a job search.
Those services exist in San Luis Obispo County, but people
seeking to use them can get lost trying to find the right agency.
The 211 line will be comprehensive.
Drawing together all the agencies and individuals that provide
aid into one central database is the challenge, Mendelson said.
"Essentially, 211 is the same information referral the Hotline
has been doing (in San Luis Obispo County) for 35 years," Mendelson
said. "The difference is that it will become part of everyone's
knowledge" once 211 becomes as widely known as 911.
Since the FCC authorized the 211 line five years ago, it has
lurched into use in a piecemeal fashion across the country. Atlanta
was the first to implement it. Ventura County came on board Feb. 11,
"National 211 Day."
Southern California counties have been aggressively expanding the
line, and Los Angeles, Riverside, Orange and San Diego counties will
join Santa Barbara County on July 1.
The local Board of Supervisors has yet to take a long look at the
211 line, and it is not certain that the all-volunteer county
Hotline will get to administer it.
The cost remains unknown. Some counties in northern California
are looking to merge their hotlines to save money and improve
efficiency.
