Oral

This session examines California's historic statewide effort to reduce mental illness stigma, prevent suicide, and improve student mental health. It provides an update to the recent American Journal of Public Health article entitled California's Historic Effort to Reduce the Stigma of Mental Illness: The Mental Health Services Act. Passed by voters in 2004, the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA; formerly Proposition 63) dedicated $160 million over a three-year period to transform California's mental health care from a fail-first to a help-first system. The California Mental Health Services Authority, a joint-powers association of county governments, administers 25 MHSA-funded regional and statewide prevention and early intervention programs which provide interventions at the individual, community, and institutional levels. The diverse projects are well into their second year of implementation, and include targeted statewide social marketing campaigns; K-12 faculty and staff early identification training programs; and suicide prevention phone, text and chat hotlines. The introductory presentation will provide a brief introduction, historical context and discussion of the prevention and early intervention transformational framework, which is founded on evidence-based best practices. Panelists will describe the projects, barriers to implementation and how they were addressed, lessons learned, independent evaluation strategies, and initial outcomes. Stephanie Welch will cover stigma and discrimination reduction efforts; Ann Collentine will report on student mental health projects; and Sarah Brichler will discuss suicide prevention programs.

Session Objectives: Describe the initial outcomes of California's suicide prevention, student mental health, and stigma and discrimination reduction programs. Identify the various best practices for stigma reduction, suicide prevention, and student mental health used by California's prevention and early intervention programs.