In the age of COVID and its long-reaching implications for California’s mental health, it is more important than ever to have accurate mental health data to help inform policy for everything from innovative prevention and early intervention strategies, to critical crisis management.
The Mental Health Oversight and Accountability Commission’s legacy of work in data research and evaluation recognizes the value access to high quality data analysis offers our community mental health systems. This important work was recently recognized by the StateScoop, a government peer group which reports on news and events impacting technology decisions in state and local government.
Each year the StateScoop sponsors an awards program which honors the best and brightest from across the United States who make state government more efficient and effective. These awards celebrate the outstanding achievements of peers and acknowledge their tireless efforts to make a positive impact in the government IT community and in public service.
We are pleased to announce that the Commission’s Criminal Justice Data Linkage Project has been nominated in the State IT Innovation of the Year category, which recognizes an IT approach to cross-agency or intra-agency technology that may have been unfathomable until recently. The Commission’s Criminal Justice Data Linkage Project integrated and analyzed arrest and mental health data to validate that intense mental health programs were associated with reductions in arrests among those with severe mental illness, especially among those with previous criminal justice involvement.
Final award winners are determined through an online voting process which is open to anyone.
We encourage you to show your support for the Commission’s work by casting your vote for the Commission’s Criminal Justice Data Linkage Project, under the State IT Innovation of the Year section. Scroll until you see the Commission’s logo and click on it to access a brief summary of the work and the VOTE button.