Title
Receive a presentation on the Rainbow Connections Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) Innovations project.
Presenter: Melanie Rhodes, Monterey County Behavioral Health Bureau
Report
RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the Health, Housing, Homelessness, and Human Services Committee of the Board of Supervisors:
Receive a presentation on the Rainbow Connections Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) Innovations project.
SUMMARY/DISCUSSION:
Proposition 63, known as the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) was approved by California voters in November 2024 and became effective in January 2025. MHSA levies a one-percent tax on personal income above one million dollars. MHSA requires counties to allocate 76% of funds to Community Services and Supports, 19% for Prevention and Early Intervention Programs, and the remaining 5% for Innovation projects. Per Welfare Institutions Code Section 5892(h), counties with populations above 200,000 have three years to spend these funds or they are reverted to the State. The Rainbow Connections project is funded with MHSA Innovation funds.
MHSA Innovation funded projects must be time-limited and provide new or changing mental health practices that have not yet been demonstrated as effective. The purpose of Innovation projects is to infuse new, effective mental health approaches into the mental health system, both for the originating county and throughout California. Innovation projects must be approved by the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission (MHSOAC), now renamed, Commission for Behavioral Health (CBH), prior to project implementation and spending.
Rainbow Connections was approved by the MHSOAC on May 25, 2023, as a five-year, $7,883,562.86 project with a start date of October 10, 2023, and an end date of October 10, 2028. Rainbow Connections was developed to address the problem of trauma and suffering experienced by LGBTQ+ youth as a result of systemic failures and gaps in knowle...
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