Lea este artículo en español.
For the second time in as many years, Gov. Gavin Newsom is pushing for major reform of California’s mental health system, this time by overhauling the way counties spend mental health dollars and placing a bond measure before voters to build more psychiatric beds.
County behavioral health advocates and local service providers fear programs will be cut, and, much like the controversial CARE Courts legislation — which passed last year and allows individuals to petition a court to force seriously mentally ill people into treatment and housing — say Newsom’s initial announcement came as a shock.
“We listened to the press conference just like you,” said Christine Stoner-Mertz, executive director of the California Alliance of Child and Family Services, which represents organizations that provide child welfare, foster care, juvenile justice and youth behavioral health services.
The proposal is being pitched as a solution to the state’s ballooning homelessness crisis, but experts doubt it will make any kind of meaningful dent. No one has published bill language for the proposal, but Newsom unveiled two major changes during his March state-of-the-state tour:
- Divert 30% of existing Mental Health Services Act money toward housing people living on the streets who are severely mentally ill;
- Use a bond measure to generate between $3 billion and $5 billion for 6,000 residential psychiatric treatment beds.
Voters passed the Mental Health Services Act nearly two decades ago as a ballot initiative that levied a 1% tax on state millionaires to fund local mental health programs. Substantial changes to the act are subject to…
Read the full article here
