141st APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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Recorded Annual Meeting Presentations (RAMP) are now available for purchase.
Only $90 for presenters, $140 for registered attendees and $200 for non-attendees.

Online Program

290159
California's mental health prevention and early intervention programs: Policy, planning, implementation, and evaluation


Tuesday, November 5, 2013 : 5:10 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Wayne Clark, PhD, Behavioral Health Department, Monterey County, Salinas, CA
Stephanie N. Welch, MSW, California Mental Health Services Authority, CalMHSA, Rancho Cordova, CA
Sarah Brichler, MEd, California Mental Health Services Authority, Rancho Cordova, CA
In January 2013, California Senate President pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg urged the federal government to consider emulating California's transformational mental health care model, as realized by the voter-approved Mental Health Services Act (MHSA; formerly Proposition 63). Among other initiatives, the MHSA provides $160 million dollars to fund statewide mental health prevention and early intervention (PEI) programs designed to restructure mental health care from a fail-first to a help-first system. These programs are grounded in evidence-based and community-defined principles, and are a unique opportunity to develop, implement, and evaluate programs that address the goals identified in the New Freedom Commission's Achieving the Promise: Transforming Mental Health Care in America.1 This presentation will cover the historical context, desired outcomes and the resulting policy decisions that led to the formation of the three main PEI program areas: student mental health, stigma and discrimination reduction, and student mental health.

1.New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. Achieving the Promise: Transforming Mental Health Care in America. Executive Summary. Rockville, MD: Department of Health and Human Services; 2003. DHHS publication SMA-03-3831.

Learning Areas:

Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Provision of health care to the public
Public health administration or related administration

Learning Objectives:
Describe the development, implementation and evaluation of California's prevention and early intervention programs Describe the evidence based and community defined principles that guided program planning

Keyword(s): Mental Health, Mental Health Services

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I earned my Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. I have 28 years with the San Francisco Health Department, 15 years as Director of the Substance Abuse Division, 10 years as Assistant Director of Mental Health Programs, and 11 years as Director of the Behavioral Health Bureau of the Monterey County Health Department. I have been Principal Investigator and co-researcher on 15 state and federal Health and Human Services (HHS) program and grants.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 4410.0: Best Practices and Initial Outcomes of California's Historic Effort to Improve Student Mental Health, Prevent Suicides, and Reduce the Stigma of Mental Illness