BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 518
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Date of Hearing: August 19, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
SB 518
(Leno) - As Amended August 17, 2015
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill requires the Victims Compensation and Government
Claims Board (VCGCB) to use a specified evidence-based
Integrated Trauma Recovery Services (ITRS) model, developed by
the Trauma Recovery Center (TRC) at the San Francisco General
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Hospital, University of California San Francisco (UCSF),
(recognized as the State Pilot TRC) when giving a grant to a
TRC. This bill also specifies core elements that the ITRS model
must include.
FISCAL EFFECT:
The additional core elements required to be met by new TRCs
could result in costs pressures in the hundreds of thousands of
dollars to the Victim Restitution Fund (VRF) by requiring a
higher level of service of TRC grantees.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. According to the author, the TRC treatment model
developed in 2001 addresses the multiple barriers victims face
recovering from crime; it utilizes a comprehensive, flexible
approach that integrates three modes of service: assertive
outreach, clinical case management, and evidence-based
trauma-focused therapies. TRCs utilize a multidisciplinary
staff to provide direct mental health services and health
treatment while coordinating services with law enforcement and
other social service agencies, and all services are housed
under one roof, with one coordinating point of contact for the
victim.
SB 518 provides guidelines with the intended goal of ensuring
fidelity to the TRC model and ensuring the same outcomes and
savings demonstrated in the Trauma Recovery Center (TRC)
created in San Francisco in 2013.
SB 518 requires, in replicating programs funded by the VCGCB,
that the ITRS include ten specified core elements, six of
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which appear to be enhanced versions of existing elements.
2)Background. Current law requires VCGCB to enter into an
interagency agreement with UCSF to establish a recovery
center for victims of crime at the San Francisco General
Hospital for comprehensive and integrated services to victims
of crime, subject to funding. The state budget act
appropriates $2 million annually to a grant program created in
2013 to replicate this successful TRC.
The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act of 2014 (Proposition
47) reclassified controlled substance felony and alternate
felony-misdemeanor crimes as misdemeanors, with some
exceptions. The Director of Finance, beginning in 2016, is
required to calculate the savings from the reduced penalties
and the State Controller is required to transfer the amount of
savings calculated by the Director from the General Fund to
the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Fund, with 10% of this
amount to be transferred to the Victims of Crime Program to
fund grants to TRCs.
3)Argument in Support. According to Californians for Safety and
Justice, SB 518 creates programmatic guidelines for the Trauma
Recovery Center (TRC) Grant Program and creates the TRC Center
of Excellence, housed at UC San Francisco, to provide
systematic training, technical assistance, and ongoing
standardized program evaluations to ensure program fidelity.
SB 518 will help provide quality trauma recovery services to
crime victims and survivors across the state.
4)Argument in Opposition. The California Coalition Against
Sexual Assault, opposes a "one size fits all" approach to
victims services. They state that each TRC must have the
freedom to create and implement a model appropriate for the
local culture and existing systems of support for victims of
crime. They support the development of a taskforce to
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establish the guidelines based on best practices in the field,
with a focus on trauma recovery for survivors of all forms of
violence and crimes, including consideration to the special
needs of survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.
5)Prior Legislation:
a) SB 71 (Budget and Fiscal Review) , Chapter 28, Statutes
of 2013, authorized the Board to administer a program to
award, upon appropriation by the Legislature, up to $2
millon in grants, annually, to trauma recovery centers, as
defined, funded from the Restitution Fund.
b) SB 733 (Leno), of the 2009-2010 legislative session,
failed passage on the Senate Floor, would have authorized
the VCGCB to evaluate applications and award grants
totaling up to $3 million, up to $1.7 million per center,
to multi-disciplinary TRCs that provide specified services
to and resources for crime victims.
c) AB 1669 (Leno), of the 2007-08 Legislative Session,
would have appropriated $1.5 million for the TRC at the San
Francisco General Hospital. AB 1669 was vetoed.
d) AB 50 (Leno), Chapter 884, Statutes of 2006,
appropriated $1.3 million for the TRC at the San Francisco
General Hospital.
Analysis Prepared by:Pedro Reyes / APPR. / (916)
319-2081
SB 518
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