DATE:
January 28, 2025
19
TO:
Board of Supervisors
SUBJECT
Title
ENHANCING BEHAVIORAL HEALTH ACCESSIBILITY: ESTABLISHING NEW PARTNERSHIPS ACROSS THE CONTINUUM OF CARE AND A-72 WAIVER
(DISTRICTS: ALL)
Body
OVERVIEW
The State of California is facing a mental health crisis and urgent action needs to be taken to help enhance our Behavioral Health Continuum of Care (CoC) to best meet the needs of our most vulnerable residents in San Diego County. The State of California is facing a shortfall of approximately 1,971 beds at the acute level, which are necessary to treat patients suffering from severe psychiatric distress. In the State of California, counties are responsible for administering specialty mental health and substance use services to residents eligible for Medi-Cal. The County of San Diego's (County) Behavioral Health Services (BHS) performs this duty by maintaining a local network of mental health and substance use services for Medi-Cal beneficiaries. The County's Optimal Care Pathways (OCP) model, a data-informed algorithm that serves as a tool to quantify the utilization of various behavioral health services across the region from crisis care to long-term community-based care, estimates that we will need to establish 400 additional beds of board and care to meet regional needs. Board and care involves providing long-term housing, meals, and other support services for individuals with behavioral health conditions.
In San Diego County, one in twenty people are currently living with a serious mental illness, and that rate increases to one in thirteen people who live in low-income households. Our regional needs to improve behavioral healthcare accessibility are particularly urgent for Medi-Cal beneficiaries who face additional barriers to behavioral health treatment. Barriers to accessing care, such as an insufficient number of board and care treatment slots, can leave people with mental illness or substance use disorder homeless, institutionaliz...
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