Please join the California School-Based Health Alliance for the release of the Student Health Index— the first comprehensive statewide analysis to show where strategic investments in school-based health centers (SBHC) will have the greatest impact on improving student health and education. Join our conversation on Wed., Oct. 6, 12 Pacific: https://bit.ly/ StudentHealthIndex100621 Learn more: https://www. schoolhealthcenters.org/ school-based-health/school- health-index/ The twin pandemics of...

In this issue of insights, we provide data and perspectives on the progress and challenges of Continuum of Care Reform implementation based on three key goals—Center Youth and Family Voice, Focus on Connecting with Relatives, and Transforming the Use of Residentially Based Care. Data indicating progress (see below) includes the positive trend of youth moving from congregate care settings to home-based placements reflecting the commitment to connecting with relatives and extended family. And,...

Dear Friends and Allies If you’re feeling both optimistic and overwhelmed by the funding and reforms focused on children’s mental and behavioral health, you’re not alone. The scope and scale of the current reform agenda, and the dozens of relevant investments included in the budget just signed by Governor Newsom, are unprecedented. Children and families, advocates, and systems leaders have achieved consensus that we must reimagine how we support the social and emotional health of children in...

Dear Friends and Allies, California is at a historic intersection of unprecedented new resources for children’s mental and behavioral health, and an opportunity to insist on equity in who receives, delivers, and is paid for children’s mental health services. On June 1st, the state released its draft Request for Proposal (RFP) which we hoped would clearly outline what is expected of Medi-Cal Managed Care Organizations (MCOs), including how they would be held accountable to provide required...

Last week Governor Newsom released the May Revision of his proposed state budget which includes an investment of $20 billion to make public schools gateways of equity and opportunity , with 20% of those funds —$4 billion dollars—dedicated to transforming California’s behavioral health system into a world-class, innovative, and prevention-focused system for Californians age 0-25. For young people, their families, allies and advocates, the proposal represents an unprecedented opportunity to...

We face both a generational opportunity and a challenging conversation, as the California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) initiative moves forward with the important step of DHCS seeking federal approval of the 1115 demonstration amendment and 1915(b) waiver . The welcome improvements realized by the CalAIM process appear to have been eroded in DHCS’ current 1915(b) waiver proposal by a set of contradictory requirements, new screening obligations, lack of clarity, and a...

There is unprecedented momentum to tackle the mental health crisis affecting our children. The universally felt isolation and suffering caused by the pandemic are helping to strip away the stigma of mental illness. In its place is an energized movement, led by advocates, that is transforming the way California provides mental health services for its most vulnerable children—the majority of whom are black and brown. This movement has captured the attention of state and local policymakers,...

Dear Friends and Allies California schools are slowly beginning to reopen and billions of dollars in federal and state funds have been committed to support the long road of not only getting our kids in school but helping close the learning gap and address the social-emotional stress of the past 12 months. The specifics, as reported by EdSource , include: $15.3 billion in assistance to California’s K-12 schools from the American Rescue Plan. An additional $6.6 billion appropriated by Gov.

Dear Friends and Allies, This is a moment for transformation led by youth advocates—those with lived experience—to reimagine a mental health system centered on equity and justice. While concerns remain with the state's proposals on both Telehealth and CalAIM, there are some hopeful signs of reform on the horizon including: $700 million proposed in the Governor’s budget to support student mental health in schools. The updated CalAIM proposal which advocates for the removal of a diagnosis for...

I would love pain-free liberation—to experience an abundance of joy, a life that comes easy, for a lifetime forever. I would love a limitless vision of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I want to say: I lived happily ever after. In my 31 years of experiencing adversity, this pain-free liberation has been impossible to obtain. Yet the ideal of it provides an opportunity to reach. Not just for myself, but for everyone, together. As the Executive Director of the California Coalition...

NO GOING BACK: Providing Telemental Health Services to California Children and Youth After the Pandemic, is the first in a series of briefs outlining how technology can make mental health more accessible with concrete recommendations based on providers’ perspectives, and lessons learned during the pandemic. Read the Report When the shelter-in-place mandate started, California’s mental and behavioral health providers quickly pivoted to telehealth delivery for children and adolescents. Recent...

Dear Friends and Allies, As we emerge from a year of crisis and despair, we are lifted by the hope of a new administration and the growing state and national consensus that we must respond at scale to the social and emotional challenges facing children. Challenges clearly driven by structural racism, the stabilization of poverty, and a culture that equates wealth with value, and fame with merit. CCT and our allies are doubling down on our commitment to reimagine children’s mental health as a...

Dear Friends and Allies On behalf of the millions of California’s children entitled to mental health support and services, we are pleased to share this groundbreaking report: “ Meeting the Moment: Improving EPSDT Implementation in California to Address Growing Mental Health Needs .” READ THE REPORT Envisioned by the California Children’s Trust (CCT), and written by the National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) and the National Health Law Program (NHeLP), the report offers advocates and...

We are thrilled to announce a new and important national policy brief: Coverage of Services to Promote Children’s Mental Health , developed in partnership with Mental Health America and the Well Being Trust. The paper expertly lays out an analysis of how current state Medicaid and commercial health insurance payment policies fail to adequately reimburse for effective interventions to promote positive child and family mental health. It underscores that this failure violates current law and...

During this extraordinary period of time, there is both an opportunity and a heightened need to examine our societal role in keeping families safely together. In this issue of insights, we provide a framework for prevention and family strengthening strategies that is guided by data on disparities in child welfare involvement, includes innovative county approaches, and offers perspectives from stakeholders including those with lived experience. Our goal is to help inform the many state and...

This week, we are taking an opportunity to reflect on the 400 years of the genocide of the Native American people and our nation’s tragic history of theft and appropriation. Native people continue to face striking health care disparities that threaten their survival and expose our collective failure to honor the lands and culture that we have and continue to benefit from. For more information on the struggle of Native people to protect the beauty and wisdom of their way of life and to...

Read on to learn about our recent work to advance the transformation of children's mental health. Listen to recordings of other Critical Conversations, and find out how we are Raising Awareness and Taking Action With Our Partners. Critical Conversations In Case You Missed These Webinars NAMI Annual Conference. On October 12 Alex Briscoe and Jevon Wilkes, CCT’s Director or Youth Engagement and the Executive Director of California Youth Coalition (CCY) presented results from a new survey on...

The Trust is honored to share the words, wisdom and lived experience of Dr. Barbara Staggers and Jevon Wilkes as we collectively pursue our vision of a mental health system centered on equity and justice. Critical Conversations The inspiration and foundation of California Children’s Trust Dr. Barbara C. Staggers, CCT’s Senior Advisor on Adolescent Health for the California Children’s Trust, retired in 2019 as director of adolescent medicine at Children's Hospital Oakland, where she also...

Op-Ed by Jevon Wilkes: Young people need safe, stable housing. They need jobs paying living wages. They need access to education and training and support to complete them and go on to careers in growing fields. They need a sense of trust, autonomy, independence, and identity to heal and thrive.

In recent days Governor Newsom signed into law three bills that take important steps to improve access to mental health care in California: AB 2112 establishes a state office of suicide prevention SB 803 will certify and train Peer Support Specialists that can bill Medi-Cal SB 855 increases mental health parity requirements commercial health plans Together these bills acknowledge our racialized crisis of despair (AB 2112), launch the formal integration and honoring of lived experience in our...

September is suicide prevention month and according to a June CDC survey on mental health, 1 in 4 youth ages 18 to 24 said they had "seriously considered" suicide in the past 30 days—more than twice as high as any other age group. The tragic fact is that more youth die from suicide than any other cause. Even before the pandemic, and the headlines that highlight our nation’s history of racial injustice and violence, there was a mental health crisis driven by social determinants tied to...

Legislation SB 803 - Introduced by state Sen. Jim Beall What it does: The Bill will set up a standardized process to train and certify peer support specialists. Why it’s important: Medicaid allows federal dollars to help pay for peer support specialists – but only in states with a process for standardizing training and certifying workers. Passage of SB803 will greatly expand the network of support for people with mental illness, and compensate people who are already providing informal...

Raising Awareness "How will we provide sanctuary for our kids? Protecting children from police surveillance, brutality and violence is critical to their health and well-being." In her NBC News op-ed, Dr. Rhea Boyd, CCT’s Director of Strategy and Equity, explains the life-long impact when children witness violence—in their schools, homes, neighborhoods. 1-click tweet An urgent and vital call to action from @CAChildrenTrust Director of Strategy and Equity @RheaBoydMD "How will we provide kids...

California Children’s Trust and it’s partner, Breaking Barriers, have released a “ Practical Guide for Financing Social, Emotional and Mental Health in Schools ”, designed to help education leaders and California access millions of dollars of Medi-Cal funding students are entitled to in order to support the social and emotional needs of our students, even more essential during COVID-19. The guide notes that less than half of California’s school districts currently participate in the LEA BOP...