BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2017
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
2017 (McCarty)
As Amended May 27, 2016
2/3 vote
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|Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Health |16-0 |Wood, Maienschein, | |
| | |Bonilla, Burke, Chiu, | |
| | |Dababneh, Gomez, | |
| | |Roger Hernández, | |
| | |Lackey, Nazarian, | |
| | |Olsen, Ridley-Thomas, | |
| | |Rodriguez, Santiago, | |
| | |Thurmond, Waldron | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Higher |13-0 |Medina, Baker, Bloom, | |
|Education | |Chávez, Irwin, | |
| | |Jones-Sawyer, Levine, | |
| | |Linder, Low, Olsen, | |
| | |Santiago, Weber, | |
| | |Williams | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Appropriations |19-0 |Gonzalez, Bigelow, | |
| | |Bloom, Bonilla, | |
| | |Bonta, Calderon, | |
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| | |Chang, Daly, Eggman, | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | |Eduardo Garcia, | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | |Roger Hernández, | |
| | |Holden, Jones, | |
| | |Obernolte, Quirk, | |
| | |Santiago, Wagner, | |
| | |Weber, Wood | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Establishes the College Mental Health Services Program
(CMHS Program) Act, which creates a grant program (CMHS Program
Grant) for public community colleges, colleges, and universities
to improve access to mental health services and early
identification or intervention programs. Specifically, this
bill:
1)Establishes the CMSH Trust Account to be used by the
Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to fund the CMHS
Program Grant.
2)Annually appropriates $40 million dollars that would otherwise
be allocated to the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA)
Prevention and Early Intervention Program fund into the CMHS
Trust Account beginning July 1, 2017.
3)Requires DHCS, in collaboration with the California Mental
Health Services Authority (CalMHSA), to create a grant program
for higher education campuses to improve access to mental
health services and early identification or intervention
programs.
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4)Requires CalMHSA to establish guidelines for grant funding and
a request for application (RFA). The RFA must include, but
not be limited to:
a) Eligibility standards of applicants in order to qualify
to be considered for a grant award;
b) Required program components to be included in the grant
application, which may include, but are not limited to:
i) Meeting the needs of students that cannot be met
through existing funds;
ii) Availability of matching funds;
iii) The ability of the campus, in partnership with the
local county, to establish direct linkages for students
to community-based mental health services;
iv) The ability of the campus to address direct services
including, but not limited to, increasing staff to
student ratios and decreasing wait times;
v) The ability to participate in evidence-based and
community defined best practice programs for mental
health services improvements.
c) Preferred program components to be included in the grant
application, which may include, but are not limited to
demonstrating the ability to:
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i) Serve underserved and vulnerable populations;
ii) Establish direct linkages for students to
community-based mental health services for which
reimbursement is available through the students' health
coverage;
iii) Reduce racial disparities in access to mental health
services;
iv) Fund mental health stigma reduction activities;
v) Provide employees and students with education and
training on early identification, intervention, and
referral of students with mental health needs;
vi) Screen students receiving other health care services
and provide linkages to services from the appropriate
mental health provider based on the insurance status of
that student, for those students who are shown to have
need for services; and,
vii) Demonstrate evidence of an existing or planned
partnership between the campus and the county behavioral
health department to address complex mental health needs
of students based on their health insurance status and
based on the extent to which there are students whose
needs cannot be met through their health plan or health
insurance or Medi-Cal.
d) The articulation of grant program goals and expected
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outcomes and various reporting and evaluation requirements
as specified.
5)Permits grants to be awarded to a Community College District
in the California Community College system, a campus within
the California State University system, or a campus within the
University of California system.
6)Requires grants to be proportional to the number of students
served, and cannot exceed more than $5 million per campus, per
application.
7)Requires grants to be awarded on competitive bases, only to a
campus that can show dollar-for dollar match of funds from the
campus.
8)Requires DHCS and CalMHSA to provide technical assistance to
smaller colleges and counties, and county behavioral health
departments upon request, in the application process to ensure
equitable distribution of grant awards.
9)Requires grant recipients to report annually to the executive
office of their respective systems. Requires the report to
include the following information: a) grant funds and
matching revenue expenditures; b) available evaluation data,
including outcomes of the campus mental health programs
funded; c) program information regarding services being
offered and the number of individuals being served; and, d)
plans for sustainability of mental health programming beyond
the funding from CMHS Trust Account.
10)Requires DHCS to develop an evaluation plan to assess the
impact of the program.
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11)Requires the higher education executive offices that receive
the reports to annually forward the reports to DHCS, CalMHSA,
and the Legislature for evaluation of the grant program.
12)Finds and declares that this measure is consistent and
furthers the purposes of the MHSA.
13)Establishes a January 1, 2022 sunset of the CMHS Program.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee:
1)Appropriates $40 million annually from the Mental Health
Services Account to fund the grant program.
2)Staff costs to DHCS of $240,000 for fiscal year 2016-17, and
$364,000 ongoing for the length of the program (Mental Health
Services Account).
3)Systems note potential difficulty in generating matching
funds.
COMMENTS: According to the author, there are tremendous mental
health needs that Californians face related to access, care, and
homelessness. However, an often forgotten part of this
discussion is our college-age students. Unfortunately, many of
our public colleges do not have mental health services for their
students on campus, particularly community colleges. Due to a
lack of access to care, college-aged students often do not seek
mental health services when they need them. The stigma around
mental health is something that can be improved if we increase
access to mental health services for students. The author
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argues that if students have the resources they need, which is
the intent of this bill, the more likely they will seek help.
Proposition 63 was passed by voters in November 2004. The MHSA
imposes a one percent income tax on personal income in excess of
$1 million and creates the 16 member Commission charged with
overseeing the implementation of MHSA. The fiscal year (FY)
2015-16 Governor's Budget projected that $1.776 billion would be
deposited into the MHSF in FY 2015-16. The MHSA addresses a
broad continuum of prevention, early intervention, and service
needs, as well as provided funding for infrastructure,
technology, and training needs for the community mental health
system. In addition to local programs, the MHSA authorizes up
to 5% of revenues for state administration. These include
administrative functions performed by a variety of state
entities such as the DHCS and the Office of Statewide Health
Planning and Development (OSHPD). It also funds evaluation of
the MHSA by the Commission, which was established by the MHSA.
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| FY | Revenue Generated | Estimated Revenue |
| | | Expended |
| | | |
|-------+--------------------+-----------------------|
|2012-13| $1.478 billion | $1.632 billion |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
|-------+--------------------+-----------------------|
|2013-14| $1.376 billion | $1.484 billion |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
|-------+--------------------+-----------------------|
|2014-15| $1.588 billion | $1.443 billion |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
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|-------+--------------------+-----------------------|
|2015-16| $1.776 billion | TBD |
| | (projected) | |
| | | |
| | | |
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MHSA requires each county mental health department to prepare
and submit a three-year plan to DHCS that must be updated each
year and approved by DHCS after review and comment by the
Commission. In their three-year plans, counties are required to
include a list of all programs for which MHSA funding is being
requested, that identify how the funds will be spent, and which
populations will be served. Counties must submit their plans
for approval to the Commission before the counties may spend
certain categories of funding.
According to national data compiled by the Center for Collegiate
Mental Health over six academic years (2009-15) from over 93
institutions, on average, the growth in the number of students
seeking services at counseling centers (+29.6%) was more than
five times the rate of institutional enrollment (+5.6%).
Further, the growth in counseling center appointments (+38.4) is
more than seven times the rate of institutional enrollment. The
lifetime prevalence rate for serious suicidal ideation among
college students (i.e., "I have seriously considered suicide")
has increased substantially over the last five years from 23.8%
to more than 32.9%, a considerable change, especially in the
context of other indices that are decreasing, at, or increasing
only slightly.
According to data compiled by the California Electronic Violent
Death Reporting System (CalEVDRS), a total of 6,471 individuals
from 20 to 24 years of age were treated for a suicide attempt in
2014. This represents a 17% increase (5,553 to 6,471) from 2000
to 2014 in individuals who attempted suicide who received
professional treatment by either being hospitalized or treated
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in an emergency department. CalEVDRS provides detailed
information from participating counties on violent deaths,
including homicides and suicides by linking data from vital
statistics death files, supplementary homicide reports from the
California Department of Justice, and coroners' investigations.
Analysis Prepared by:
Paula Villescaz / HEALTH / (916) 319-2097 FN:
0003283