County Supervisors approved several contracts with non-profit agencies to deliver the County’s legally required programs to help people with mental health problems.
County Deputy Behavior Health Director, Frank Warren, wrote the staff reports for all three items at the Supervisor’s July 9 meeting.
CAP-SLO Gets Contract
On tap was a contract worth $381,000 and recommended to be awarded to Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo or CAP-SLO, the lower of two bidders the County considered.
It’s a routine contract the County Behavior Health enters into annually with private organizations to deliver services under the State Mental Health Services Act (MHSA), which resulted from the voter approved Proposition 63 (November 2004).
Prop. 63 levied an extra 1% income tax on people making over $1 million a year, to be used for mental health programs targeting individuals and families, “who have mental health needs,” Warren’s report said.
CAP-SLO’s contract is for just one year (Fiscal Year 2024/25), and would provide mental health services for youth and adults under three programs:
• School and Family Empowerment (SAFE) Program: CAP-SLO would “employ a ‘Family Advocate’ to provide resource support within an SAFE team for youth from birth to 21-years old. Clients must display certain characteristics, including a chronic history of Welfare &Institutions Code (Section 5150) commitments; hospitalizations; emergency room visits; law enforcement involvement; foster youth with multiple placements; risk of out-of-home placement; and/or in juvenile justice system. The Family Advocate will also have to provide outreach services to potential SAFE clients at community health fairs, school meetings and events, parenting classes, and parent leadership activities.
• Service Enhancement Program: CAP-SLO will have to provide a family advocate for “system navigation and supportive services.” Services shall be provided at Martha’s Place, a County-operated assessment and treatment center for children from birth to 5-years old. “The goal of the SEP is to reduce stress associated with navigating through the healthcare system and increase the success rate of families accessing and remaining engaged in services.”
These advocates will “assist families and caregivers by guiding them through the public mental health system and connecting them with other necessary supportive services.”
• Positive Development Program: Through something called “Child Care Resource Connection” CAP-SLO will “provide side-by-side facilitation of the ‘I Can Problem Solve’ curriculum with private childcare programs primarily serving pre-school aged children.”
CCRC will also provide training, resources, and support “to childcare programs on assessment tools such as the Behavioral Rating Scale and Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social and Emotional,” the report said.
That’s a “County-wide effort to build problem-solving skills, self-esteem, social, emotional, and behavioral control competencies of children in childcare.”
• In-Home Educator: CAP-SLO will provide “both in-home or teleconference parent education services, using evidence-based curriculum, and assessments of families to identify immediate needs to be met in order to stabilize the family.”
The goal with this “is to assist families in developing parenting skills, knowledge of age-appropriate expectations, knowledge of age-appropriate behaviors, increasing positive discipline skills, and increasing attachment through positive parent/child interactions.”
Broken down, CAP-SLO’s proposal allots $107,000 for the School and Family Empowerment; $83,000 for Service Enhancement Program; $99,000 for Positive Development; and, $91,000 for the In-Home Parent Educator program.
The new contract gives the Health Department director the authority to sign renewal contracts for another 4 years through 2029.
$1.1M for Transitions
Transitions Mental Health Association was awarded a $1.1 million contract for FY 2024/25, for another slate of mental health programs, with Warren again crafting the report.
According to the report, Transitions is supposed to use the money to: “provide outreach, engagement, and education related to mental health services for families, adults, and underserved/difficult to reach populations.”
This too is coming out of the MHSA and its tax on the wealthy, and falls under MHSA’s “Outreach, Education, and Stigma Reduction services.”
This too has a slate of programs to run:
• Family Education Program: Transitions will provide family support and mental health education programs for family members of individuals with mental illnesses including formatted lectures and interactive classes at no cost to participants.
• Wellness Centers: Transitions “will provide person-centered, trauma informed, recovery-based services designed for life enrichment, personal development, peer support, community resource connection, recovery education, social skill development, and social rehabilitation workshops for individuals with mental illness who may otherwise remain withdrawn and isolated.”
• Forensic Re-entry Service; MHSA Program Level Goal: “Provide linkage to behavioral health services, including resource support and short-term case management, for jailed adult offenders being released from custody who suffer from mental illness and co-occurring substance use disorder.”
• Peer Advisory and Advocacy Team: Transitions must develop and maintain “a peer-run consumer advisory council of mental health stakeholders, providing system advocacy training to members and attendees so that they can significantly participate in behavioral health system planning processes.”
• Social Marketing Strategy — Community Outreach & Engagement: Transitions will provide “interpersonal outreach and information dissemination regarding mental health awareness, education and stigma reduction for underserved and at-risk populations,” the report said, “including, when appropriate, one-to-one personal contact, referrals, and support resources throughout the county.”
According to the plan, “there shall be an emphasis on local veterans, LGBTQ groups, and homeless, and underserved populations in rural pockets of the county.”
$850K More to Transitions
Transitions also got an $852,000 contract as part of the County’s efforts at addressing homelessness.
This contract was to, “provide residential housing, homeless housing, and case management services for adults and underserved/difficult to reach populations.”
This time, only Transitions answered the County’s call for bids and got the contract essentially by default. This too has programs set up already under MHSA, they are:
• Homeless Housing Component: Transitions will “provide stable, supportive housing for individuals participating in the FSP program dedicated to homeless individuals. TMHA shall operate a 4-bed housing program in San Luis Obispo County for clients in the homeless FSP program.” This budget is $38,000.
• Adult Intensive Residential Housing: Transitions will “coordinate with clients receiving housing services to encourage participation in self-determined wellness and recovery activities, with a goal of 10-hours a week of activity as specified in client’s treatment plan goals. The intensive residential services program provides independent living with external supports and includes evening and weekend 40-hours a week case management coverage.” This is budgeted at $52,000.
• Intensive Residential Case Management: Transitions will “provide intensive case management services to assist the clients in developing problem-solving skills related to daily living, housing, managing chronic symptoms of illness, decreasing psychiatric hospitalizations and employment.” The budget for this is $453,000.
• Intensive Residential Housing: This involves “independent living with external supports and includes evening and weekend 40-hours a week case management coverage.” This budget tops $306,000.
