Latest California Healthline Stories
More Emphasis Now on Mental Health Care
The California Senate Office of Research released a new policy brief this week that outlines some of the new ways mental health issues will need to be handled in California.
The brief laid out several developments in mental health care:
Dealing With a Taboo Problem in Asian Community
Asian American girls have the highest rates of depressive symptoms of any racial/ethnic or gender group, according to a study released last month by the National Alliance for Mental Illness. Asian Americans are at a high risk for many other mental health issues — including higher rates of suicide deaths among young women and older women in the Asian community.
California has the largest Asian American population in the nation, by far. A conference is being convened today in Los Angeles to address the issue.
“The quality of mental health care provided to ethnic minority groups is inadequate,” conference keynote speaker Stanley Sue said. “There is a paucity of research, especially rigorous research such as clinical trials, on treatment outcomes for ethnic minority groups.”
Valley Children’s Crisis Center Facing Its Own Crisis
Failure to meet state regulations threatens to close Fresno County’s only psychiatric crisis center for children and adolescents. County and state officials are hoping to work out a compromise that would allow the center to remain open.
Hits Keep Coming for Mental Health Community in California
Cuts in funding for two years running. Redirection of $861 million. Major shift of responsibility away from the state and onto the counties. Can all of that actually result in more efficient and integrated mental health care?
Mental Health Comes Up $1.4 Billion Short
According to a study just released by National Alliance on Mental Illness, California spent $587 million fewer dollars on mental health services than it did two years ago.
Add in the $861 million in redirection of Prop. 63 funds in the proposed new budget, and you’re looking at a total loss of roughly $1.4 billion in mental health funding. But losses can be dealt with, as long as they’re not perpetual budget drains, according to Pat Ryan, executive director of the California Mental Health Directors Association.
“It’s very scary,” Ryan said. “We have pointed out, the amount of money they’re estimating to pay for services [in the new budget restructuring] is already starting out less than we know it costs to provide those services.”
Mental Health Advocates See Promise, Problems in Budget Plan
Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to shift authority and funding for mental health services from Sacramento to the state’s 58 counties could be a good thing, mental health advocates say, as long as a consistent flow of money arrives with the new responsibilities.
The first thing to know is AB 39 by Jim Beall (D-San Jose) is really AB 3632.
The new bill, to be heard when the Legislature goes back to work Jan. 3, was written to replace money appropriated this year by the old bill (AB 3632), which was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger and his blue pencil at the end of the last session.
That’s the simple part. Explaining just what that money is for, that’s a little tougher.
Mental Health Advocates Sue Over Governor’s Cuts
Before the governor signed the state budget, he cut about $1 billion from it. One of those line-item vetoes trims $133 million from mental health services spending for children.
According to advocates who filed a lawsuit Friday to stop it, those cuts are illegal.
“Only the state Legislature has the authority to reverse the mandate to provide these services,” Jim Preis of Mental Health Advocacy Services said.
Debate Continues Over Laura’s Law, Mental Health Care
San Francisco continues to grapple with a controversial resolution affecting treatment for severely mentally ill patients. It renews the debate over what to do about a small group of people who find themselves in and out of jails, hospitals and homelessness.
Riverside Lobbying for Raise in State Health Care Funding
Health care and government officials in Riverside County want to adjust state reimbursement rates they say are inadequate and creating a crisis in health care access. The county has the second-lowest state reimbursement rate for health care services in California.