Stanislaus County OKs new mental health plan, prepares for state monitoring
California’s Mental Health Services Act of 2004 was intended to transform the state’s community-based care system by creating a stable funding source commonly called the millionaire tax.
But it didn’t cure intractable problems of homelessness, addiction and untreated mental illness in the state’s 58 counties.
Stanislaus County supervisors have approved a three-year plan for implementing the Behavioral Health Services Act, which replaced the MHSA effective Jan. 1, 2025, and restructures the model to include substance use disorder treatment and housing support.
Created by Proposition 1 and Senate Bill 326, the BHSA doesn’t change the funding source for mental health services but changes the allowable uses for the money.
Because counties are required to follow state guidelines for allocating their share of funding, the Stanislaus plan will spread $41.6 million annually to intensive treatment and support programs (35%); behavioral health treatment, crisis services, outreach and workforce development (35%); and housing for people with behavioral health conditions (30%).
The county plan was submitted to the state Department of Health Care Services in late March. State feedback and revisions will be worked into the final plan due June 30.
More than 760 people participated in the two-year planning process, including homeless individuals, veterans, families and residents in underserved cultural and ethnic groups. Focus groups were conducted at the Modesto Gospel Mission, the Salvation Army shelter and other locations.
Many services in the BHSA plan were operated under the MHSA and will continue to serve residents. The plan also includes new and expanded programs and services. Additionally, the county faces new requirements for accountability and state monitoring.
County officials hope the new plan increases access to care and serves to reduce homelessness, relieve burden on the criminal justice system, reduce untreated mental illness, prevent removal of children from homes and reduce the number of suicides and drug overdoses.
The strategies include expansion of crisis response teams, outreach to hospital emergency departments and shelters, school-based services and criminal justice diversion programs.
In the next fiscal year, the county will allocate $3.4 million for rental and operating subsidies for permanent housing, $4 million for rental and operating subsidies for interim housing and $2.24 million for housing transition and tenant services. An additional $1.5 million will be allocated for landlord outreach, mitigations and participant assistance, $873,000 for housing outreach and engagement and $500,000 for capital development projects.
County leaders may see individual proposals for neighborhood-based treatment, children’s residential treatment, behavioral health housing and broader use of community health workers.
“The BHSA redirects behavioral health funding and system priorities toward individuals with the greatest behavioral health needs, including individuals experiencing homelessness, justice involvement, serious mental illness, substance use disorders, and children and youth involved in high-risk systems,” a county staff report said.
Supervisor Terry Withrow said at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting that county mental health services already have had an accountability focus but “this really requires us to have accountability. We will have to answer to the state.”
Withrow added that successful programs will make a profound difference for the community and the District Attorney’s Office, county Probation, the Public Defender and the court system.
The state is moving away from funding prevention and early intervention programs. County BHRS has notified contractors that five agreements for those programs will end on June 30.
