Quick Links

• Laws & Regulations
• Budget Information
• Facts & Stats
• CDER
• DDS Forms
• Publications & Other Resources
• Employment Opportunities
• Public Records Requests
• Appeals, Complaints & Comments
• Small Business and Disabled Veterans Advocates
• Disabilities Advisory Committee
• Español
• Newsroom
• Links
• Contact Us

Documents identified by PDF (Portable Document Format) requires the Adobe Acrobat Reader to be viewed and printed. If you do not already have the Adobe Reader, it can be downloaded for free from Adobe.

Fiscal Years 2011-12 through 2013-14 MHSA Funding

The Department of Developmental Services (DDS) received Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) funds for Fiscal Years 2011-12 through 2013-14. Funding allows regional centers to develop and oversee innovative projects focusing on early intervention and treatment for children and adults.

DDS established the MHSA Priorities based on feedback from our Priority Planning Committee and the Mental Health/Developmental Disabilities (MH/DD) Collaborative. A Request for Applications was distributed to regional centers. Upon careful review of the applications, the selection committee, comprised of committed stakeholders, awarded funding to the following regional centers:

• ACRC will replicate a project that was originally conducted by the San Diego Regional Center. ACRC will establish the Substance Abuse Reduction Project for consumers with mental health challenges to initiate:
  
  
  • A multi-agency task force addressing substance abuse and developmental disabilities.
  • A consumer support group.
  • A residential clean and sober facility.
  In addition, consumers will have access to substance abuse education focusing on prevention and wellness. Regional center staff and service providers will receive education regarding substance abuse in individuals with developmental disabilities.
  
  Contact: John Decker at jdecker@altaregional.org
  
  Website: www.altaregional.org/resources/mhsagrant/

• MHSA Forums will showcase the MHSA Projects to encourage statewide project replication and the adoption of best practices and service approaches for consumers with mental illness. Forums will also provide a mechanism for effective system-wide collaboration.
  
  Contact: Olivia Balcao at obalcao@altaregional.org

Central Valley Regional Center (CVRC) will develop the Foundations of Infant Mental Health Training Program, a two-year regional training program based on the Revised Training Guidelines and Personnel Competencies for Infant Family and Early Childhood Mental Health.

The program is designed for clinicians, service providers, and other professionals from six agencies in the CVRC catchment area. The training program will be directly responsive to the professional development needs of participating agencies.

Contact: Kayti Quesada at kquesada@cvrc.org

Website: http://www.cvrc.org/index.php?id=155

• NBRC will replicate San Gabriel/Pomona Regional Center’s MHSA Cycle I Project that focused on the best strategies for working with and supporting the families of consumers at risk for abuse and trauma. Building Bridges will introduce area professionals to methods and resources for screening, identification, diagnosis, treatment, and discharge in a collaborative cross-system context.Trainings will present effective ways to 1) reduce inappropriate behaviors; and 2) differentiate between behaviors associated with mental illness and those associated solely with developmental disabilities.
  
  Contact: Pamela Madden-Krall, M.A. at pamela@nbrc.net
  
  Website: www.nbrc.net/mhsa/mhsa.htm


• Project Connect will address barriers and gaps across the early childhood mental health service systems in Napa, Sonoma, and Solano counties. Project Connect will familiarize agencies and professionals with the importance of the social-emotional well-being of young children.

Training will prepare professionals to support, evaluate, intervene early, and treat the mental health needs of young children and support their families. Project Connect will also build an ongoing evaluation plan that measures progress towards ameliorating barriers.

Contact: Patrick Maher, M.D. at PatrickM@nbrc.net

Website: http://www.projectconnectnbrc.net/

Regional Center of the East Bay will administer the dual system (County Mental Health departments and regional centers) Mental Health Consultant positions and fund the MH/DD Collaborative quarterly meetings.

San Gabriel/Pomona Regional Center (SG/PRC) will replicate Golden Gate Regional Center’s Anchor Project, funded in FY 1996-97, which developed a treatment program for 30 “high risk” consumers with mental health challenges.

PROJECT HOPE will offer group and individual psychotherapy to an identified core group of adult consumers with a recent history of one or more psychiatric hospitalizations. These consumers will receive training in anger management, social skills, human sexuality, and problem solving. The goal is for consumers, families, and providers to learn strategies to reduce problem behaviors, and decrease the need for psychiatric hospitalization.

Alma Family Services will provide semi-annual training for SG/PRC staff, families, residential providers, and other vendors. Training will increase awareness of the signs and symptoms of mental health disorders, provide tips to enhance consumers’ coping abilities, and offer strategies to identify and de-escalate behaviors that often lead to psychiatric hospitalization.

Contact: Nora Perez-Givens at ngivens@sgprc.org

Website: http://www.sgprc.org/Resources/Resources.html

Westside Regional Center

• The Transitional Age Youth Service Integration Project will identify local needs, barriers, and patterns of service use among Transitional Age Youth (TAY) in the Los Angeles area. TAY and their families will support the project by identifying:
  
  
  • Services used most frequently.
  • Points of entry.
  • Strengths and weaknesses present at each agency.
  • Barriers to multi-agency collaborative services.
  
  The above needs assessment data will inform the project. In-service training events will address identified needs of TAY and provide a forum to collaborate, exchange information, and boost workforce competency.
  
  A user-friendly, culturally appropriate resource directory for TAY, families, case managers, agency personnel, and others will be developed.
  
  Contacts: Alicia Bazzano, M.D. at aliciab@westsiderc.org
  Aga Spatzier, M.P.H. at agas@westsiderc.org
  
  Website: http://www.westsiderc.org/index.htm

• The Tools for Accessing Quality of Services project will improve integrated systems of care for consumers with a mental illness. The project will identify current assessment and treatment models being utilized in the field, address current service needs, and generate tools to enhance the quality of assessments and treatments for consumers with mental health challenges.

Contacts: Alicia Bazzano, M.D. at aliciab@westsiderc.org
Erica Schuster at ericas@westsiderc.org

Website: http://www.westsiderc.org/index.htm