To help curb a decadelong rise in overdose deaths and emergency room visits linked to methamphetamine use in San Francisco, city officials plan to create a sobering center to help people ride out their highs inside and, hopefully, enter treatment.

That’s among the most concrete recommendations in a recently released report laying out a broad vision for how San Francisco leaders and health officials ought to focus resources and energy to tackle the epidemic of meth use in the city.

The skyrocketing use of meth has created a public health crisis playing out on the streets in San Francisco, where meth is contributing to “violent encounters, property damage, thefts and hazardous waste,” according to the report. It has also exacerbated the city’s mental health crisis, driving psychosis in some users.

The report represents the culmination of months of work by a meth task force, a group convened by city officials in February to confront the growing use of the drug in San Francisco. Supervisor Rafael Mandelman and Department of Public Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax spearheaded the task force, which included representatives from public health and addiction research, and meth users.

Officials presented the report’s findings at a press conference Tuesday morning.

Much of the report outlines various ways city agencies — including the health and homelessness departments and law enforcement — can better work together. Most of the 17 recommendations are focused on making it easier for meth users to get help. That means hiring more staff and spending more money for services and housing, though the report does not include precise details around costs.

The report’s call for a meth sobering center mirrors the proposal Breed included in her plan to address the city’s mental health crisis, which she’s calling UrgentCareSF. She hopes to wed the centers with tougher drug use enforcement on the streets, envisioning the center as an alternative for people otherwise facing arrest and possible jail time.

“The Department of Public Health is currently exploring locations for the center and our plan is to have at least one of these centers open within the next three to six months,” Breed said.

The hope is that the meth sobering center would help take some of the pressure off the city’s overwhelmed and understaffed psychiatric emergency services. It would be modeled to an extent on the alcohol sobering center that the city has operated since 2003, Colfax said.

“It really is based on a model that we already have. And now we’re thinking about how we can scale that up with regard to meth specifically,” he said. “We have a long history of engaging and treating addictions in this city. I think the key thing now is how we modernize our system and make sure the systems catch up with the science.”

The report also recommends creating overdose prevention programs, which could include supervised injection sites — which Breed has championed.

Mandelman also highlighted one recommendation calling for the city to rethink the way it handles crisis interventions. At present, the only way to get help for someone in the grips of a meth-induced psychosis is to call 911, the report said. That generally results in a response from law enforcement, even when no apparent laws were broken.

“I hear almost every day from constituents who are seeing folks in distress, folks in psychosis, pretty much every day and they have no idea what to do, who to call, how to get a response, they (call 311) and it doesn’t work,” Mandelman said. “They feel nervous about calling the police.”

In response, he said the city would look to consolidate and simplify the system through which people can report mental health crises, particularly those involving meth use.

“That is something that will change lives both for folks who are in crisis, and for the communities in which those folks are living,” Mandelman said.

Obtaining reliable statistics on the use of an illicit drug is difficult. But city health officials estimate that around 24,500 people in San Francisco inject drugs. About 39% of that population reported injecting meth.

Overdose deaths attributed to meth use in San Francisco have soared in the past decade, mirroring a grim national trend. There has been a 500% increase in meth-overdose deaths since 2008; 126 people died last year alone. Mortality rates are highest for African Americans, the report found.

The report also underscored the link between meth use and psychosis, reflected in the volume of visits to the city’s psychiatric emergency room. From 2017 to 2018, 47% of all those visits were related to meth use.

Among patients with at least eight involuntary psychiatric holds — the holds are for people who are considered a danger to themselves or others — 89% used only meth, the report found.

The percentage of drug arrests involving meth has risen steadily since 2003, with a sharper uptick beginning in 2008. In that year, 1 in 20 drug arrests involved meth; by 2018 that figure was 1 in 5.

One of the challenges that public health officials face is the lack of good treatment options for meth addicts. There are no FDA-approved medications to treat meth addiction, unlike for opioid dependence. Some studies suggest a few approved drugs, such as select antidepressants and an ADHD medication, might help.

Behavioral therapies are now used to treat meth addiction, including motivational incentives such as vouchers or small cash rewards to keep people from using.

“It’s important that we have better access to treatment on demand, that we have better access to supportive, wraparound services. And you know what, (patients) may not accept it on the first, second or third time. But we have to make sure that regardless, it is available, it is accessible, it is easy to get to,” Breed said.

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa