BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2017|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2017
Author: McCarty (D), et al.
Amended: 8/19/16 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE: 8-0, 6/22/16
AYES: Hernandez, Nguyen, Hall, Mitchell, Monning, Nielsen,
Pan, Roth
NO VOTE RECORDED: Wolk
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 9-0, 6/29/16
AYES: Liu, Block, Hancock, Huff, Leyva, Mendoza, Monning, Pan,
Vidak
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 5-0, 8/11/16
AYES: Lara, Beall, Hill, McGuire, Mendoza
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bates, Nielsen
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 77-0, 6/2/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: College Mental Health Services Program
SOURCE: Academic Senate for California Community Colleges
California State Student Association
Faculty Association of California Community Colleges
Steinberg Institute
University of California Student Association
DIGEST: This bill establishes the College Mental Health
Services Program Act, as specified, until January 1, 2022.
Requires the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability
Commission to create a grant program for specified colleges to
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provide required services to college students related to
improved access to mental health services and early
identification and intervention programs, and requires grant
awardees to report to specified entities on the use of funds for
programs.
Senate Floor Amendments of 8/19/16 delete reference to the
College Mental Health Services Trust Account (CMHSTA), within
the State Treasury, and instead require any moneys for the
College Mental Health Services Program (CMHSP) appropriated by
the Legislature to be made available to the Mental Health
Services Oversight and Accountability Commission (the
Commission); and delete the Department of Health Care Services
(DHCS) from the provisions in this bill and instead require the
Commission to administer the CMHSP.
ANALYSIS: Existing law establishes the Commission to oversee
the implementation of the Mental Health Services Act, enacted by
voters in 2004 as Proposition 63, which provides funds to
counties to expand services, and develop innovative programs and
integrated service plans, for mentally ill children, adults, and
seniors through a one percent income tax on personal income
above $1 million.
This bill:
1)Requires the Commission to create a grant program for public
community colleges, colleges, and universities, in
collaboration with county behavioral health departments, to
improve access to mental health services and early
identification or intervention programs. Establishes the CMHSP
Act.
2)Requires the Commission to establish grant guidelines and
develop a request for application for the grants to include,
but not be limited to:
a) Eligibility standards of applicants in order to qualify
to be considered for a grant;
b) Required program components to be included in the
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application, including the ability of the program to meet
the needs of students that cannot be met though existing
funds; the ability of the program to fund the matching
component, as specified; the ability of the campus to
address direct services like increasing staff-to-student
rations and decreasing wait times; and the ability to
participate in evidence-based and community defined best
practice programs for service improvements;
c) Preferred program components to be included in the
application, which may include the ability of the campus to
serve underserved and vulnerable populations, establish
direct linkages to community-based mental health services,
reduce racial disparities in access to mental health
services, fund mental health stigma reduction activities,
have an existing or planned partnership between the campus
and the county behavioral health department to address
complex mental health needs of students, as specified, and
have evidence of an existing or planned partnership between
the campus and local safety net providers to ensure
linkages to primary care and community-based mental health
care, regardless of the health insurance status of the
student; and
d) Required reporting and evaluation standards to be met by
applicants that are selected for a grant.
3)Requires colleges, in collaboration with their local county
behavioral health department, to submit the grant application
to the Commission, as specified.
4)Gives the Commission the authority to approve grant programs
and to award funding. Allows 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, or a grouping of campuses within the segments.
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5)Requires total available grant funding to colleges by segment
to be proportional to the number of students served by that
segment. Prohibits the Commission from awarding more than $5
million per campus, per application.
6)Requires grants to be awarded only to a campus that can show a
dollar-for-dollar match of funds or another match to be
determined by the Commission, as specified. Requires
individual grant award allocations to be expended over at
least one year but not to exceed three years, as determined by
the Commission. Prohibits grant awards from being used to
supplant existing campus, state, or county funds utilized to
provide mental health services.
7)Requires the Commission to provide technical assistance to
smaller colleges and county behavioral health departments upon
request to ensure equitable distribution of the grant awards.
8)Requires all entities that have been awarded grants to report
annually on the use of grant funds to Commission, and annually
post the reports on their Internet Web sites, to include, but
not limited to, how the grant funds and matching funds are
being used; available evaluation data, including grant program
outcomes; information regarding services being offered and the
number of individuals served; and plans for sustainability of
mental health programs beyond the funding provided by this
bill. Requires the reports to be electronically submitted
annually to the appropriate Chancellor's offices and the
University of California Office of the President.
9)Requires the Commission to develop an evaluation plan to
assess the impact of the CMHSP, and to submit the evaluation
to the Legislature by February 1, 2019, and annually
thereafter by no later than February 1 of each year,
evaluating the impact and providing recommendations to further
the CMHSP implementation. Requires the Commission to make the
report available to the public and to post it on its Internet
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Web site that includes specified information.
10)Specifies that the CMHSP remains in effect only until January
1, 2022, unless a later enacted statute deletes or extends
that date.
Comments
1)Author's statement. According to the author, Californians face
a tremendous mental health need, often related to access,
care, and homelessness. However, an often forgotten part of
this discussion is college-age students. Unfortunately, many
of our public colleges do not have adequate mental health
services for their students on campus, particularly community
colleges. In many cases, college aged students do not ask for
help when they need it. The stigma around seeking mental
health treatment is still prevalent in our society, but we can
help change it if we increase access to mental health services
for students. Once students have the resources they need, the
more likely they will seek help, and this can positively
impact all our students' success.
2)Student mental health data. According to national data
compiled by the Center for Collegiate Mental Health at Penn
State over six academic years (2009-15) from over 93
participating institutions, on average, the growth in the
number of students seeking services at campus 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%. 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
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attempted suicide who received professional treatment by
either being hospitalized or treated 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.
Related Legislation
AB 1644 (Bonta), renames the 1991 School-Based Early Mental
Health Intervention and Prevention Services for Children Act the
Healing from Early Adversity to Level the Impact of Trauma in
Schools Act, to provide outreach, free regional training, and
technical assistance for local educational agencies in providing
mental health services at school sites. AB 1644 was held under
submission in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
According to the Senate Committee on Appropriations:
1)Unknown ongoing costs to provide grant funds to public college
campuses (General Fund or other fund source).
2)One-time costs of $240,000 and ongoing costs of $365,000 per
year for the DHCS to provide technical assistance to grantees
and to oversee the operation of the program (General Fund).
3)Ongoing costs likely between $1 million and $2 million per
year for the California Mental Health Services Authority to
develop grant guidelines, review grant applications, and
provide technical assistance to college campuses (General
Fund).
4)Unknown costs to public college campuses to put up matching
funds to receive grants under the bill (General Fund or
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special funds). The bill would require public college campuses
that apply for funding to agree to provide a dollar-for-dollar
match or another match. Depending on the match requirement,
and the extent to which colleges could count existing program
funds for the match requirement, the bill could impose
additional costs on public college campuses.
SUPPORT: (Verified8/15/16)
Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (co-source)
California State Student Association (co-source)
Faculty Association of California Community Colleges (co-source)
Steinberg Institute (co-source)
University of California Student Association (co-source)
American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, California
Division
Association of California Community College Administrators
Board of Governors of the California Community
Colleges/Chancellor's Office
California Association for Postsecondary Education and
Disability
California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists
California Black Health Network
California Board of Psychology
California Civil Liberties Advocacy
California Council of Community Behavioral Health Agencies
California Faculty Association
California Federation of Teachers
California Pan-Ethnic Health Network
California State University
California Youth Empowerment Network
Community College League of California
Kern Community College District
Los Angeles Community College District
Los Rios Community College District
National Association of Social Workers, California Chapter
North Orange County Community College District
San Bernardino Community College District
San Jose/Evergreen Community College District
Student Senate for California Community Colleges
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West Kern Community College District
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/15/16)
None received
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: Supporters argue that the state's public
colleges serve nearly three million students, and studies show
that mental health needs of this population are great, with as
many as one in four students having a diagnosable mental illness
and only 40% of them seeking help when they need it. Supporters
argue that colleges lack the level of needed mental health
professionals and resources to help college students, who often
suffer from depression, anxiety, psychosis, or other mental
health conditions due to social and emotional stress, academic
expectations, increasing debt, and other major life
transitions..
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 77-0, 6/2/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker,
Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos,
Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh,
Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo
Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove,
Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk,
Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark
Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams,
Wood, Rendon
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bigelow, Beth Gaines, Gallagher
Prepared by:Reyes Diaz / HEALTH / (916) 651-4111
8/22/16 20:37:47
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