(a) It is the intent of the Legislature that essential and culturally relevant mental health assessment, case management, and treatment services be available to wards of the court and dependent children of the court placed out of home or who are at risk of requiring out-of-home care. This can be best achieved at the community level through the active collaboration of county social service, probation, education, mental health agencies, and foster care providers.
(b) Therefore, using the Children’s Mental Health Services Act (Part 4 (commencing with Section 5850) of Division 5) as a guideline, the State Department of Health Care Services, in consultation with the County Behavioral Health Directors Association of California, the State Department of Social Services, the County Welfare Directors Association of California, the Chief Probation Officers of California, and foster care providers, shall do all of the following:
(1) By July 1, 1994, develop an individualized mental health treatment needs assessment protocol for wards of the court and dependent children of the court.
(2) Define supplemental services to be made available to the target population, including, but not limited to, services defined in Section 540 and following of Title 9 of the California Code of Regulations as of January 1, 1994, family therapy, prevocational services, and crisis support activities.
(3) Establish statewide standardized rates for the various types of services defined by the department in accordance with paragraph (2), and provided pursuant to this section. The rates shall be designed to reduce the impact of competition for scarce treatment resources on the cost and availability of care. The rates shall be implemented only when the state provides funding for the services described in this section.
(4) By January 1, 1994, to the extent state funds are available to implement this section, establish, by regulation, all of the following:
(A) Definitions of priority ranking of subsets of the court wards and dependents target population.
(B) A procedure to certify the mental health programs.
(c) (1) Only those individuals within the target population as defined in regulation and determined to be eligible for services as a result of a mental health treatment needs assessment may receive services pursuant to this section.
(2) Allocation of funds appropriated for the purposes of this section shall be based on the number of wards and dependents and may be adjusted in subsequent fiscal years to reflect costs.
(3) The counties shall be held harmless for failure to provide any assessment, case management, and treatment services to those children identified in need of services for whom there is no funding.
(d) (1) The State Department of Health Care Services shall make information available to the Legislature, on request, on the service populations provided mental health treatment services pursuant to this section, the types and costs of services provided, and the number of children identified in need of treatment services who did not receive the services.
(2) The information required by paragraph (1) may include information on need, cost, and service impact experience from the following:
(A) Family preservation pilot programs.
(B) Pilot programs implemented under the former Children’s Mental Health Services Act, as contained in Chapter 6.8 (commencing with Section 5565.10) of Part 1 of Division 5.
(C) Programs implemented under Chapter 26 (commencing with Section 7570) of Division 7 of Title 1 of the Government Code and Section 11401.
(D) County experience in the implementation of Section 4096.
(Amended by Stats. 2015, Ch. 455, Sec. 15. (SB 804) Effective January 1, 2016.)
Last modified: October 25, 2018