State Puts Mental Health Transformation on March 2024 Ballot

LOS ANGELES — Gov. Gavin Newsom, Oct. 12 accompanied by legislative and local leaders, families, advocates, veterans, and health care professionals, signed Senate Bill 326 (Eggman, D – Stockton) and Assembly Bill 531 (Irwin, D – Thousand Oaks) which collectively will transform California’s mental health and substance use disorder treatment systems for the first time in decades.

These reforms re-focus billions of dollars in existing funds to prioritize Californians with the deepest mental health needs, living in encampments, or suffering the worst substance use issues. The $6.38 billion bond will provide funding to build more than 11,150 new behavioral health beds and housing and 26,700 outpatient treatment slots – capacity that will touch many tens of thousands of people’s lives every year – filling critical needs across the state for homeless Californians with severe behavioral health issues, to kids suffering from depression, and everyone in between. Recent polling from the Public Policy Institute of California or PPIC found 87% of Californians say there is a mental health crisis in the United States.

This transformation comes after months of engagement with stakeholders across the state: people and families with lived experience, health care professionals, children and youth groups, veterans organizations, schools and school administrators, businesses, labor leaders, mental health and equity advocates, first responders, and local officials.

Senate Bill 326 modernizes the Mental Health Services Act to address today’s behavioral health system and demand for services. These reforms expand services to include treatment for those with substance use disorders, prioritize care for those with the most serious mental illness, provide ongoing resources for housing and workforce, and continue investments in prevention, early intervention, and innovative pilot programs. T

Assembly Bill 531 includes a $6.38 billion general obligation bond to build 11,150 new treatment beds and supportive housing units as well as outpatient capacity to help serve tens of thousands of people annually – from intensive services for homeless people with severe mental illness, to counseling for kids suffering from depression and everyone in between. This investment would be the single largest expansion of California’s behavioral health treatment and residential settings in the state’s history – creating new, dedicated housing for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness who have behavioral health needs, with a dedicated investment to serve veterans. These settings will provide Californians experiencing behavioral health conditions a place to stay while safely stabilizing, healing, and receiving ongoing support. Included in the bond is a $1 billion set aside specifically for veterans’ housing.

Additionally, Gov. Newsom announced the “California Mental Health Movement,” his plan to address the mental health and substance use disorder crises happening across the state – impacting Californians in every community.

The multi-year “California Mental Health Movement” includes four key pillars:

Treatment and Housing for Those Who Need it Most: $10.9 billion to create approximately 24,800 beds/units. It also creates 45,800 outpatient treatment slots for Californians with behavioral health issues across the spectrum — everything from intense, inpatient care, to substance abuse treatment, to outpatient care and counseling

Increasing Access to Mental Health Services for All: Investing over $10.1 billion to increase access to behavioral health services for all Californians. Transforming Medi-Cal to expand behavioral health services and crucial care for one in three Californians, offering new crisis care and targeted veteran and older adult services, and developing a plan to require private and commercial health plans to raise their standards to match Medi-Cal behavioral health plans.

Building the Health Care Workforce: California is investing $5.1 billion, and proposing an additional $2.4 billion investment through reforms to the Mental Health Services Act, to train and support more than 65,000 new health care workers over the next five years to ensure we have the workforce to provide culturally responsive services and care to all who need them.

Supporting and Serving Kids: The investments include $4.6 billion to support children through the master plan for childrens’ mental health and gives California’s 10,000 public schools the opportunity to get enhanced funding to increase student behavioral health services.

Details: https://tinyurl.com/BHSA-Fact-Sheet and https://tinyurl.com/California-mental-health