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Many of California's school health centers provide accessible, high-quality mental health services to the state's most vulnerable children and youth. However, increasing need and decreasing funding are limiting their ability to do so. Inevitably, some children and youth are not getting the mental health care they need.
The Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) Prevention and Early Intervention component is new state funding for counties to develop accessible mental health services for vulnerable populations. How and where this funding is spent will be determined primarily through a stakeholder process at the county level.
In addition, the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission (MHSOAC) voted in June 2007 to approve $60 million in statewide initiative funds for a Student Mental Health Initiative (SMHI) in response to the tragedy at Virginia Tech. Twenty grants ranging from $100,000 to $350,000 will be awarded to K-12 applicants via a Request for Application (RFA) process which is anticipated to be released towards the end of 2008. Click here to download more information on the Student Mental Health Initiative.
School health centers are a promising (and increasingly popular) model for delivering accessible mental health services to vulnerable children and youth and are well-positioned to secure this new funding. Click here for more information.
Over the next few months CSHC will be providing school health centers with tools and information to help them engage in their county stakeholder processes and make the case for MHSA funding for school health centers!
MHSA Prevention and Early Intervention Events (click on links for more information):
The Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI) Guidelines are complete and available for public viewing. Please click here to read the Guidelines and here to learn more about the MHSA.
The Guidelines will provide county mental health departments with instructions on how to plan for and spend PEI funding. County mental health departments need schools and school health centers to achieve their PEI goals. But counties will not know how school health centers can help them unless you are at the tables where decisions are made about PEI funding.
Having received the Guidelines, counties will begin their PEI community planning processes immediately. So, now is the time for your involvement. CSHC offers the following steps to help schools and school health centers learn more about the opportunity of PEI funding and how to become prepared for and involved in their PEI Community Planning Process:
1. Read CSHC's factsheet “Expanding Mental Health Services through School Health Centers, Opportunities for Prevention and Early Intervention .” Click here to read this document.
2. Download the Guidelines by clicking here . The glossary of PEI terms can be viewed by clicking here. Please read these sections and consider how your school or school health center could provide services related to PEI .
- Pages 6-10: Overview of the Operational of Definition of Prevention and Early Intervention.
- Page 11-14: PEI Community Planning Process, including language recommending school health centers as partner organizations in the PEI planning process.
- PEI Resource Materials: Click here to download the resource materials.
3. Contact your MHSA County Coordinator to get more information on your PEI Community Planning Process. Click here for a list of MHSA County Coordinators contact information. We recommend asking the coordinators the following questions:
- “How does the county intend to conduct the PEI planning process? Ask the coordinator specifically for a schedule of stakeholder meetings.
- “What do you hope to achievel with PEI and what elements are going to be most challenging for the county?” Remember, prevention is NEW for most county mental health departments. It requires them to seek out new service providers and programs. Try understand what they are struggling with.
- “How do you see school health centers helping the county achieve their goals of delivering PEI programming?” Look at this as an opportunity for them. Counties do not have the resources to create new programs from scratch. Anything that already exists provides them with an opportunity to “add on” rather than start from square one.
Please contact Kristin Curran, kcurran@schoolhealthcenters.org, if you would like more support around MHSA.
Also please visit the following links for more information on the Mental Health Services Act and the MHSA Oversight and Accountability Commission (MHSAOAC).
To learn more about CSHC's policy agenda, click here.
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