UPPER LAKE—Keynote speaker at the Western Region Town Hall was the Lake County Behavioral Health director alerting residents of severe challenges to retain vital programs in operation during the May 20 meeting.
Director Elise Jones explained she was there because of California’s Proposition 1 which was on the ballot a couple years ago changed the Mental Health Services Act that was passed long before that. “This is a big change for our services to our community,” Jones said. “This Mental Health Services Act passed over 20 years ago. And it imposed a one percent tax of the state’s millionaires and billionaires so, California’s richest begin contributing to and allowed behavioral Health Services to have additional financial support beyond what the state it is required to do”
California Proposition 1 aims to enhance behavioral health services by providing $6.4 billion in funding for mental health treatment facilities and supportive housing. Passed in March 2024 is a significant legislative initiative designed to address the ongoing mental health crisis in California. It aims to reform and expand the state’s behavioral health system by creating the Behavioral Health Services Act, which replaces the previous Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) from 2004. This new act includes provisions for substance use disorders, thereby broadening the scope of mental health services available to Californians.
The Lake County Behavioral Health Department helps people with mental health issues and substance abuse disorders. “We provide medication management, therapy a variety of wrap around services, and we’re here as a safety net for some of California’s most vulnerable individuals,” said Jones. “The Mental Health Services Act gave us a lot of flexibility to funding according to local preference,” said Jones. “We know what we need and how to do it. So, you may have heard of our Peer and Wellness Centers. But there hasn’t been one in this (WRTH) district, but we have one in the Big Oak Center, Clearlake Oaks. And we have Circle of Native Minds in Lakeport and another center in Lakeport aimed at youth 18 to 25.”
Behavioral Health also offers a Peer Support Services program. That means peers who live with behavioral health disorder, because sometimes it is better to connect with your peers, somebody who has gone through what current patients experience. And it also established training opportunity for what is called, Mental Health First Aid. “It’s a wonderful curriculum that teaches regular people what to do if you see someone who is challenged with behavioral health issues,” Jones said.
Meanwhile, another category of treatment availability is Prevention and Early Intervention, based on the fact, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And the Behavioral Health Department do community events to reduce the stigma attached to mental health services. Unfortunately, one of the biggest factors that prevents people from seeking health care is people are ashamed to reveal they are not OK. And the Department has a done a lot to combat that in the community.
What’s more, they have a number of people who started as clients yet through in house training transformed into clinicians who now hold high levels of leadership in the department. “Who better to help design the services than people who lived it and that would not have happened without our current funding sources,” Jones pointed out. She also noted the Prop. 1 passed very narrowly and reformed as not just as the MHSA but as Behavioral Health Services as a whole, with the number one change; treating substance abuse disorder.
The county receives 1% of the Prop. 1 (millionaires’ tax) offering funding that qualifies for the Full-Service Partnership. “That means not just providing medication or therapy; we’ll do whatever it takes,” said Jones. And that can include assisting people to get an apartment or getting a bed for an apartment or arrange for transportation, since it is hard to get better. if one is lacking basic needs. “Historically, we paid a lot for housing, including hotel stays during inclement weather,” Jones added. And that County share of Prop1 funds can serve as a kind of collateral to draw down federal funds. So, in the new BHSA, the state retains 10% of funds and Lake County retains 90%, with a generous portion dedicated to housing, especially the chronic homeless.
Meanwhile, another bucket of funding supports multiple projects under the Mobile Crisis Program. However, a number of those projects were sunset since they did not appropriately fit within a ‘defined fund bucket.’ These include: La Voz de la Esperanza Wellness Center with its unique take on health care, yet also Peer Run Wellness Centers, and the Big Oak Center. “We’re looking at a ‘Club House’ (model), like a wellness center but has lots of rules,” Jones said. “It incorporates fidelity, where it must show it is reaching specific benchmarks and it’s contingent upon its ability to opt into a federal waiver, in order to draw down Medicaid re-imbursements for the services,” she said. And her department must draw down as much Medicaid as possible, while focus on the most critically ill, as well as every year go through a rigorous planning process where the department’s leadership determines which sectors of the department is going to do what, prior to funding.
In 2025, the Behavioral Health Department received over 400 calls and completed over 1.200 field responses and of those, 83% were stabilized without the assistance of a sheriff deputy or other law enforcement, which is pretty successful, Jones pointed out. And those statistics also speaks to the advantage of avoiding diverting personnel to psychiatric hospitals.
Jones also explained just days earlier she had spent time in Sacramento to meet legislators to strongly advocate maintaining mobile crisis services. Unfortunately, Governor Gavin Newsom’s revised budget did not provide for those services. Jones relayed, every county supervisor and every state legislator she spoke to (including Mike McGuire and Cecile Aguire Curry) favored sustaining Mobile Crisis units.
“This revised budget has not passed so, there’s still time to apply pressure,” she reassured.
PIX coming …