July 27, 2006

County to expand mental health services to children, adults and seniors

By Supervisor Jim Beall
Special to the Times

Proposition 63, passed by California voters in November 2004, established new tax revenues to be used to expand county mental health services to children, adults and seniors with severe mental illnesses.

The new Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) will also fund prevention and early intervention services, innovative programs, human resource development and capital facilities and technology improvements.

During the last week in June, the state approved Santa Clara County’s plan for the first phase of this new program and released funds to expand current services to the most severely mentally ill. It is expected that Santa Clara County will receive about $13.4 million per year for FY06, FY07 and FY08.

Our county’s plan was developed over nine months and with the involvement of hundreds of providers, clients, family members and interested community members. The plan calls for “full service partnerships,” which means that all of the needs of individual clients will be addressed including housing, employment support, health care, mental health treatment and intensive case management. Services will be provided by the County and by contract agencies selected through an RFP process.

The plan is designed to transform the current system into a “resiliency and recovery-oriented system” that is consumer and family-driven. The plan is also intended to address current disparities in access to services for specific ethnic populations.

A special feature of the plan is a collaboration between the Mental Health Department and the county’s Office of Affordable Housing, each of which will provide $4 million to create permanent affordable housing for the mentally ill. This money will be used to leverage additional funds from foundations and housing trusts. In addition, part of the funds will provide transitional housing for mentally ill clients being released from jail, some of whom must stay beyond their sentences because no housing is available.

In accordance with the proposition approved by the voters, the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission has the responsibility of overseeing the implementation of the Act. This state commission is composed of 16 members and includes Jerry Doyle, CEO of Eastfield Ming Quong, an agency in Santa Clara County that provides wraparound services to children with mental health issues and their families.

For more information about the implementation of Proposition 63, call Sheila Yuter, the County’s MHSA coordinator, at (408) 885-3885, or Lee Sturtevant in the Office of Supervisor Jim Beall at (408) 299-5048.