Behavioral Health - California Health Care Foundation

Behavioral Health
The burden of untreated behavioral health conditions — encompassing mental health and substance use disorders — is both a major public health problem and a delivery system challenge. CHCF works to improve systems of behavioral health care and to focus on integrating mental health, substance use, and physical health services to achieve the best outcomes for Californians with low incomes.

Learning from COVID-19: How Pandemic-Era Policies for Methadone Prescribing Could Improve Opioid Treatment

Leslie Suen, Oanh Nguyen, Kelly Knight

Behavioral Health

Emergency regulations instituted as COVID-19 reached the US allowed patients who may not otherwise have qualified for methadone take-home doses to receive them.

Patience, Commitment Help Journalists Capture Harsh Realities of Fentanyl Addiction

Behavioral Health

A conversation with San Francisco Chronicle reporter Trisha Thadani and photojournalist Stephen Lam about how they approached a project that dug deep below the surface of the city's overdose crisis.

Cultivating Outcomes Through Equity in Behavioral Telehealth

Behavioral Health, Telehealth

In this 18-month initiative, participants will work to improve their behavioral telehealth practices so that patients will have equitable access to high-quality services that promote resilience and emotional well-being.

Biden Lays Out His Health Policy Agenda

Alyssa Llamas, Dawn Joyce

Behavioral Health, Health Care Costs

Some of his key items are already underway via administrative actions, while others require legislative action in Congress.

How California Can Build on CalAIM to Better Integrate Physical and Behavioral Health Care

Behavioral Health

This analysis reviews CalAIM behavioral health initiatives, looks at programs from other states, and finds additional opportunities for California to advance integration in Medi-Cal.

Expanding Substance Use Care: Health Plan Teams Up with Seven California Counties

Behavioral Health

In this regional Drug Medi-Cal Organized Delivery System program, the counties provide financial resources, and Partnership HealthPlan of California administers the program.

Behavioral Health Mobile Crisis Response Services in Medi-Cal

Behavioral Health, Medi-Cal

Too often, the first response to people experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis is law enforcement. Communities across California are working to retool their approach to people undergoing behavioral health crises by developing mobile crisis response services. The state's Medi-Cal program is expected to add these services as a new benefit as soon as January 2023.

Mobile Crisis Teams: A State Planning Guide for Medicaid-Financed Crisis Response Services

Behavioral Health

This paper provides a review of the requirements of the American Rescue Plan Act as it pertains to community-based mobile crisis intervention services. It also highlights state considerations that will support a more robust crisis continuum, including 988 planning.

2022 Edition — Substance Use in California

Allison Valentine, Molly Brassil

Behavioral Health

California's health care system is moving toward acknowledging substance use disorders (SUDs) as chronic illnesses, yet only about 10% of people with an SUD in the last year received treatment. Substance Use in California: Prevalence and Treatment provides an overview of substance use and addiction in the state.

Federal Policy Recommendations to Support State Implementation of Medicaid-Funded Mobile Crisis Programs

Behavioral Health

In light of new federal funding policies and the upcoming launch of the 988 behavioral health crisis line, this paper identifies important issues in mobile crisis implementation and describes ways that federal agencies could support state and local efforts.

School Mental Health 101: A Primer for Medi-Cal Managed Care Plans

National Center for Youth Law, California Children’s Trust

Behavioral Health

School Mental Health 101: A Primer for Medi-Cal Managed Care Plans introduces managed care plans to California’s vast and complex K–12 education system to help foster partnerships with schools to increase access to school-based and school-linked care for students on Medi-Cal.

Raising the Bar for Behavioral Health Care

October 21, 2021

Serene Olin, Lauren Niles

Behavioral Health

The National Committee for Quality Assurance evaluates the current behavioral health quality measurement landscape and shares insights about the needs and challenges facing behavioral health care organizations.

Digital Start-Up Is Transforming Mental Health Care in Schools

September 28, 2021

Behavioral Health, Health Equity, Investing in Innovation, Medi-Cal

The CHCF Health Innovation Fund has invested in Hazel Health’s vision for critical services for students and young adults.

Bridging the Divide Between Mental Health Care and Addiction Treatment

September 21, 2021

Katherine Haynes

Behavioral Health

In a Los Angeles Times op-ed, a CHCF senior program officer shares the heartbreaking story of her son’s death from mental illness and substance use, the result of being caught between two siloed health care systems. Her desire to prevent future tragedies inspires her work promoting integrated care in California.

Sobering Centers Explained

Shannon Smith-Bernardin, Bonar Menninger

Behavioral Health

Sobering centers offer a cost-effective alternative for providing care to people with acute intoxication whose public alcohol or drug use puts themselves or others at risk. New interest in the decades-old approach has been sparked by recent CalAIM (California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal). Learn more about these programs through these two publications: a high-level issue brief and a detailed report.