Legislative Session 2023-2024
AB 283 (Patterson): Mental Health Commission – Geographic Representation
This bill urges the Governor to consider ensuring geographic representations among the 10 geographic regions of California as defined by the 2020 census when making appointments to the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission.
AB 289 (Holden): Mental Health Services – Representation
This bill requires a county that is developing a three-year plan and annual updates under the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) to include among the stakeholders in its development efforts youth or youth mental health organizations and individuals representing diverse viewpoints, including youth from historically marginalized communities, representatives from organizations specializing in working with underserved and racially and ethnically diverse communities, and representatives from LGBTQ+ communities.
AB 459 (Haney): California Behavioral Health Outcomes and Accountability Review
This bill would require the California Health and Human Services Agency, by July 1, 2026, to establish the California Behavioral Health Outcomes and Accountability Review (CBH-OAR), consisting of performance indicators, county self-assessments, and county and health plan improvement plans, to facilitate an accountability system that fosters continuous quality improvement in county and commercial behavioral health services and in the collection and dissemination of best practices in service delivery by the agency. In addition, this bill would require the agency to convene a workgroup, which includes representatives from the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, to establish a workplan by which the CBH-OAR shall be conducted.
AB 657 (Jackson): Mental Health Services Funding Act
This bill would enact the Mental Health Services Funding Act that would require a distributor to pay a tax upon the distributor’s distributions of candy at the rate of $0.05 for each untaxed candy distributed and require all revenues, interest, and penalties, less refunds, collected from the candy tax to be deposited into the Candy Tax Fund, a continuously appropriated fund created by the bill, and would require all amounts in the fund to be distributed to the Mental Health Services Fund.
AB 820 (Reyes): State Boards and Commissions – Seniors
This bill would expand the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission membership to include a representative of an organization that serves or advocates for older adults.
AB 845 (Alvarez): Behavioral Health – Older Adults
This bill would establish within the State Department of Health Care Services an Older Adult Behavioral Health Services Administrator to oversee behavioral health services for older adults which would be funded with administrative funds from the Mental Health Services Fund. In addition, the Administrator would be required to work in close coordination with community partners including the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission.
AB 1282 (Lowenthal): Mental Health – Impacts of Social Media – SUPPORT
This bill would require the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission (Commission) on or before July 1, 2026, to report to the relevant policy committees of the Legislature a statewide strategy to understand, communicate, and mitigate mental health risks associated with the use of social media by children and youth.
AB 1636 (Santiago): Mental Health Services
This bill would require the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission to develop, implement, and oversee a public and comprehensive framework for tracking and reporting spending on mental health programs and services from all major fund sources and of program- and service-level and statewide outcome data. In addition, this bill would require counties to report to the commission their expenses in specific categories, including, but not limited to, inpatient care or intensive outpatient services, as well as their unspent funding from all major funding sources.
SB 326 (Eggman): Mental Health Services Act
This bill would require a county, for a behavioral health service eligible for reimbursement pursuant to the federal Social Security Act, to submit the claims for reimbursement to the State Department of Health Care Services under specific circumstances.
SB 509 (Portantino): School Employee and Pupil Training – Youth Mental and Behavioral Health – SUPPORT
This bill would require a local educational agency (LEA), on or before January 1, 2027, to certify to the California Department of Education (CDE) that 75 percent of its classified and certificated employees who have direct contact with pupils at each school have received specified youth behavioral health training.
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