Proposition 1 is a two-part ballot initiative. It includes a bond to build treatment facilities and permanent supportive housing for people with mental health and addiction challenges. It also proposes changes to a longstanding tax on personal incomes over $1 million, known as the Mental Health Services Act, by requiring counties to spend 30% of that revenue on housing instead of other services.
Proposition One, passed by the voters of California last March, is changing the landscape of county behavioral health departments. For the first time, local behavioral health boards and commissions will be responsible for substance use disorder programs meeting local needs. To do so, and continue to meet the needs of those needing mental health services, counties are required to develop three-year Integrated Plans for all funding received from federal, state, and local sources.
Sonoma County’s Behavioral Health Board is implementing the new requirements, referred to as Behavioral Health Transformed, over the next six months. Initially, it is adding new members to its board and establishing a planning committee to establish a process for bringing the current plans for its funding into focus.
Here’s the actual instructions to Sonoma County from the California Department of Health Care Services, received on November 9, 2024: “The Behavioral Health Services Act (BHSA) requires counties1 to submit three-year Integrated Plans for Behavioral Health Services and Outcomes (Integrated Plans (IPs)). Whereas the Three-Year Program and Expenditure Plan required under the MHSA focused exclusively on MHSA dollars, the BHSA establishes the IP to serve as a three-year prospective global spending plan that describes how counties plan to use all available behavioral health funding, including BHSA, 1991 and 2011 Realignment, federal grant programs, federal financial participation from Medi-Cal, opioid settlement funds, local funding, and other funding to meet statewide and local outcome measures, reduce disparities, and address the unmet need in their community. In accordance with the BHSA, the IP provides a description of how counties will plan expenditures across a range of behavioral health funding sources and deliver high-quality, culturally responsive, and timely care along the Behavioral Health Care Continuum for the plan period.2
IPs require counties to conduct a thorough data-informed local service planning process and provide transparency into county planning for expending BHSA funding and all other behavioral health funding sources overseen by counties. IPs will also facilitate local and statewide data collection by providing baseline data on services and planned expenditures and supporting analysis of county goals and outcomes.”
Homeless Emergency Assistance Program Association 