The Behavioral Health Services Act (BHSA) replaces the Mental Health Services Act of 2004. It reforms behavioral health care funding to prioritize services for people with the most significant mental health needs while adding the treatment of substance use disorders (SUD), expanding housing interventions, and increasing the behavioral health workforce. BHSA guides counties to look at their whole behavioral health systems of care in their community planning process. It also enhances oversight, transparency, and accountability at the state and local levels. Additionally, BHSA creates pathways to ensure equitable access to care by advancing equity and reducing disparities for individuals with behavioral health needs. It is one part of Proposition 1. The second part of Proposition 1, the Behavioral Health Bond, authorizes $6.4 billion in bonds to finance behavioral health treatment beds, supportive housing, community sites, and funding for housing veterans with behavioral health needs.

BHSA targets funding to provide services to eligible adults and children with or at risk of the most serious mental health conditions and SUDs, including people experiencing homelessness, at risk of incarceration, re-entering the community from a justice-involved setting, at risk of conservatorship, in foster care, and/or at risk of institutionalization.

The BHSA requires that each county mental health program shall prepare and submit a three-year plan which shall be updated at least annually and approved by the California Department of Mental Health after review and comment by the Oversight and Accountability Commission. BHSA further requires that the department shall establish requirements for the content of the plans.

Learn more about BHSA by watching the below video, review our BHSA presentation, exploring our MHSA/BHSA pages or by visiting California’s Department of Health Care Services’ website.

California’s Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) oversees and partners with county behavioral health, ensuring alignment with state and federal policies. This nine-minute video, sponsored by DHCS, helps explain the most critical aspects of the public behavioral health in California, including:

• Who is served
• Services provided
• The deeply committed workforce
• Funding

Across the state, county behavioral health meets people where they are and maintains its dedication to doing whatever it takes to strengthen the safety net — improving access, support, and outcomes for the people who need it most.