Behavioral Health Services Act

​​What is the Behav​ioral Health Services Act?

The Behavioral Health Services Act 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. It also enhances oversight, transparency, and accountability at the state and local levels. Additionally, the Behavioral Health Services Act      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.

What remains the same​​ from the transition of the Mental Health Services Act to the Behavioral Health Services Act?

Local control to determine how funding is allocated and the community planning process for implementing services remain the same. Counties also continue to determine how services are delivered through their county system and/or through provider contractors. Counties are not required to end any of their existing contracts. Additionally, counties may choose to utilize different funding for contracts, such as Medi-Cal or other behavioral health funding sources.      The allocation methodology to distribute local funding will also stay the same. Innovation is encouraged across the Behavioral Health Services Act funding categories.

W​ho​​ will be served under the Behavioral Health Services Act?

The Behavioral Health Services Act 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.

W​hy d​​oes the Behavioral Health Services Act expand Mental Health Services Act to include people with SUDs?

We have come a long way in understanding SUDs and must continue to reduce the stigma associated with SUDs. The need for SUD services has increased and is often closely related to mental health conditions. Expanding eligibility to include those with SUDs provides an optional tool to address SUD service needs, based on community needs and data, such as prevalence rates. It also allows counties to use Behavioral Health Services Act funds in combination with federal funds to expand SUD service offerings.

Ho​​w d​oes the Behavioral Health Services Act support culturally responsive strategies and meet the goal of measurably reducing health disparities?

The Behavioral Health Services Act builds on many strategies to meet communities' needs for culturally responsive services that improve health and reduce health disparities for all, including:

• Reducing the silos for planning and service delivery.
• Requiring stratified data and strategies for reducing health disparities in planning, services, and outcomes. 
• Clearly advancing community-defined practices as a key strategy for reducing health disparities and increasing diverse community representation.
  

How wi​​ll​ children and youth benefit from the Behavioral Health Services Act?

Mental health and substance use challenges are experienced across the lifespan. The Behavioral Health Services Act strengthens tools to treat those with more serious conditions and to intervene early, meeting children, youth, and their families where they are to disrupt the trajectory toward illness and other negative outcomes. New state-administered, population-based prevention efforts will reduce the prevalence of mental health issues and SUDs and prioritize children and youth. 

• High-need individuals will benefit from the emphasis on Full Service Partnerships, which provide evidence-based programs, like high-fidelity wraparound to community-defined evidence-based programs. These children and youth can benefit from a whole-person approach that is trauma-informed, age-appropriate, and in partnership with family or an individual's existing supports.
• 51 percent of early intervention funding must be directed to people 25 years of age and younger and include early childhood (0-5) mental health consultation, school-based services, and expanding early psychosis and mood disorder detection and intervention.
• Population-based programming on behavioral health and wellness to increase awareness about resources, reduce stigma, and stop behavioral health problems before they start.
  

Wh​at are​​​ the new responsibilities the state is taking on with its 10 percent of allocated funding?

Under the Behavioral Health Services Act there are new responsibilities for state departments:

• The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) will receive 4 percent for statewide, population-based prevention services, with 51 percent of this funding serving people 25 years of age and younger.
• The Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) will receive 3 percent for sustained statewide workforce initiatives to expand a culturally competent and well-trained behavioral health workforce.
• DHCS, along with various state departments, will receive a portion of the remaining 3 percent (which was reduced from 5 percent) for oversight and monitoring, technical assistance, and administering programs. BHSOAC will direct the Innovation Partnership Fund, which sets aside $20 million annually to develop innovations with non-governmental partners.
  

What are​ the county funding categories under the Behavioral Health Services Act?

The funding categories for county funding are as follows:

• 35 percent for Behavioral Health Services and Supports, including early intervention; outreach and engagement; workforce; education and training; capital facilities and technological needs; and innovative pilots and projects.
• A majority (51 percent) of this amount must be used for intervention in the early signs of mental illness or SUDs.
• A majority (51 percent) of early intervention services and supports must be for people 25 years of age and younger.
  
  35 percent for Full Service Partnership programs, including comprehensive and intensive care for people at any age with the most complex needs (also known as the “whatever it takes" model).
  
  30 percent for housing, including interventions for rental subsidies, operating subsidies, shared housing, family housing for eligible children and youth, and the non-federal share of certain transitional rent.
• Half of this amount (50 percent) is prioritized for housing interventions for the chronically homeless.
• Up to 25 percent may be used for capital development.
  
  Provides counties with flexibility within the above funding areas by allowing each county to move up to 7 percent from one category to another, for a maximum of 14 percent more added into any one category, to allow counties to address their different local needs and priorities – based on data and community input.
  

Cou​​nties are very different, especially small counties. Are there other flexibilities or exemptions?

Yes, counties have unique strengths and challenges, especially small counties with a population of 200,000 or less. With input from counties, DHCS will develop criteria and create an approval process for small county exemptions. Two key examples include:

• An exemption from dedicating 30 percent of local funds for housing interventions in the 2026-29 planning cycle and ongoing.
• An exemption from providing certain treatment models at fidelity that small counties may not have the capacity or scale to provide.
  

How does​ the Behavioral Health Services Act improve oversight, accountability, and transparency to the public?

​There are two significant updates that help accomplish these goals.

• County Integrated Plan for Behavioral Health Services and Outcomes: These three-year planning documents, the first of which are due in June 2026, will provide a more comprehensive and transparent picture of all public local, state, and federal behavioral health funding, including Behavioral Health Services Act, Realignment, federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH) grants, opioid settlement funds, and Medi-Cal. The plans will provide a budget of planned expenditures, reserves, and adjustments, align with state and local goals and outcome measures, and outline workforce strategies. Plans must be informed by local stakeholder input, including additional voices on the local behavioral health advisory boards.
• County Behavioral Health Outcomes, Accountability, and Transparency Report: Counties will be required to report annually on expenditures of all local, state, and federal behavioral health funding (e.g., Behavioral Health Services Act, Realignment funding, federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and PATH grants, opioid settlement funds, and Medi-Cal), unspent dollars, service utilization data and outcomes with a health equity lens, workforce metrics, and other information. DHCS is authorized to impose corrective action plans on counties failing to meet certain requirements.
  

Performance outcomes will be developed by DHCS in consultation with counties and stakeholders. An additional 2 percent and up to 4 percent for small counties of local Behavioral Health Services Act revenue may be used to improve planning, quality, outcomes, data reporting, and subcontractor oversight for all county behavioral health funding, on top of the existing 5 percent county planning allotment. Counties can also use funds to support training and technical assistance to ensure stakeholders have enough information and data to participate in the development of integrated plans and annual updates.

Where ​​should I start if I'm seeking mental health and/or SUD treatment?

If you're seeking services for mental health and SUD services, please visit the DHCS website for information on available resources and treatment options. The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. You may also connect with CalHOPE by live chat, call (833) 317-HOPE (4673), or text. Additionally, a groundbreaking new program provides free, safe, and confidential mental health support for young people and families across the state with two easy-to-use mobile apps: BrightLife Kids and Soluna.

Further, Shatterproof Treatment Atlas, an addiction treatment locator, assessment, and standards platform, can connect individuals to appropriate evidence-based addiction treatment. To empower individuals and change attitudes about SUDs, DHCS launched Unshame California, a science-driven and content-based campaign that promotes anti-stigma messaging through stories of Californians impacted by SUDs. Both Treatment Atlas and Unshame California align with ongoing statewide initiatives to reduce substance use overdoses, support recovery efforts, and educate the public.