California Performane Review

California Performance Review

The following information has been provided by the California Coalition for Mental Health:

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To: Mental Health Associates
From: Rusty Selix
Re: Preliminary review of California Performance Review

We have completed our initial review of the California Performance Review report and note that it contains three specific mental health recommendations:

Realign EPSDT, AB 34 and other state funded programs into county realignment as part of a broader realignment that shifts IHSS (In Home Support Services) and Indigent Healthcare back to the state so that the savings to the counties "more than offset" the costs of responsibility for EPSDT. The report recommends forming a task force of state, county and legislative (but not other stakeholder) representatives to develop a proposal. (This is a very simple concept but involves three multi billion dollar programs and complex relationships not just between the state and counties but also numerous constituency groups. It will be extremely difficult to develop a broadly supported proposal unless the state is prepared to significantly increase funding.)
Consolidate State Departments of Alcohol and Drug and Mental Health. This has been proposed in the past and as the report notes 38 counties and 25 other states have already made this change. The report refers to the advantages in regards to co-occurring disorders how both are now recovery oriented and seem more compatible than in the past and how each system can benefit from the other - stating that alcohol and drug has prevention programs and mental health has systems of care. (When this was proposed in the early 90s both Mental Health and Alcohol and Drug constituency groups were unanimous in opposing it and it was rejected by the Legislature.) There are related restructuring of all of the departments under the Health and Human Services Agency which is part of an overall restructuring of state government as set forth in Volume 2 of the full report called Form Follws Function.
Eliminate the two city programs and transfer their funding to their counties (Alameda and Los Angeles). (these programs represent a small portion of the services in those two counties so this is a local issue for those programs and affected providers and communities, but does not have a significant effect statewide and probably not even countywide).

Mental health interests will also be affected by many of the other recommendations contained in the Health and Human Services section of the report (chapter 2 of Volume 4). The full report can be downloaded from www.cpr.ca.gov or see the copy from this site: California Performance Report.

Last Updated on 08/04/04 webmaster@namiscc.org

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