“The system raised me, and the system failed me,” said Raymond Aguilar at a recent press conference, announcing the publication of a new report highlighting the public health outcomes of trying youth as adults. Mr. Aguilar, a youth advocate, was prosecuted as an adult during his mid-teen years; he spent 26 years in prison. [...]
On September, 22, 2016, the California Departments of Social Services and Health Care Services jointly released the Medi-Cal Manual for Intensive Care Coordination (ICC), Intensive Home Based Servicers (IHBS) & Therapeutic Foster Care (TFC) for Medi-Cal Beneficiaries, Second Edition. Most notably, the manual clarifies that these intensive mental health services are available for ALL Medi-Cal [...]
Statewide Rollout of Therapeutic Foster Care Will Complete the Third and Final Service Component of the Longstanding Katie A. Reform Lawsuit California took its first step towards implementing a new intensive community-based mental health service for children and youth with serious mental health needs. Earlier this month, the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) [...]
Sacramento County is poised to make a substantial investment in intensive community-based mental health services for Medi-Cal eligible youth. Last week, Sacramento County Executive Navdeep Gill released the County’s 2016-2017 Recommended Budget. The proposed budget adds more than $1.1 million in county funds for the expansion of Katie A. mental health services, an array of individualized [...]
In February, in response to advocacy by Young Minds, the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) announced a landmark policy shift that made thousands of young people with mental health needs in California newly eligible for community-based mental healthcare. Young Minds Advocacy has analyzed the shift and estimates that more than twenty-three thousand youth, with [...]
By Annabelle Gardner, Director of Communications The consequences of untreated mental illness are in the news--a lot. Families and whole communities have been and continue to be torn apart because people with serious mental health needs aren’t getting adequate treatment. Hospitalizations for psychiatric disorders are spiking, especially for youth, and there aren’t enough hospital beds [...]
By Annabelle Gardner, Director of Communications Thousands of young people with mental health needs in California are newly eligible for community-based mental healthcare thanks to policy changes announced by the Department of Health Care Services last week. With mental health related hospitalizations for children and youth at an all time high, these services could fill [...]
As many as seventy percent of young people, involved in the juvenile justice system, may have a serious mental health condition. Yet only eight percent of these youth received treatment within 6 months after entering detention. High rates of youth with mental illness in the juvenile justice system are due, in part, to the failure [...]
In May, Young Minds Advocacy wrote to the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) requesting action to end the prohibition on providing intensive community-based mental healthcare to as many as 15,000 low-income youth in need throughout the state. In a response received yesterday, DHCS agreed with Young Minds’ assertion that these services, also known as [...]
Some of the most important rights to mental healthcare for children and youth come from federal “entitlement” programs. Generally, an entitlement is a legally enforceable guarantee of access to a public benefit or service. In other words, the prescribed service must be provided to anyone who meets the eligibility criteria. Many children have just such [...]
