California Legislative Updates

SCPS member and CSAP Board Member Rod Shaner was interviewed recently for an article in the LA Times, Why California's much-touted CARE Court is 'no one-and-done program'. The article discusses the roll out of the CARE Act, setting expectations, and how it will be constrained by the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act. Below are [...]

Earlier this week, Paul Yoder and I were able to attend a round table discussion hosted by the Steinberg Institute to start a dialogue about how we can establish a mental health “right to care” in California. A truly multidisciplinary group of folks representing providers across the behavioral health continuum [...]

Should Housing, Mental Health and Substance Use Services Be a Right in California? The Steinberg Institute and its founder, Darrell Steinberg, has invited CSAP to participate in a conversation about what it would take in California to make mental health and substance use services an entitlement for all those who [...]

The Legislature Leading into the general election, the California State Senate had 31 Democrats and 9 Republicans. The State Assembly had 60 Democrats, 19 Republicans, and 1 Independent. After the election, the Democratic supermajorities will remain. However, with at least thirty-three new members (not including flipped seats), a lot of [...]

Ok, Sacramento is finally done for the time being (Or are they? See below)! Governor Newsom completed his final actions on the 1,166 bills sent to him in 2022. He signed 997 bills and vetoed 169 bills, for a veto rate of 14.5%. The following bills were signed and released [...]

AB 988 (Bauer-Kahan) Mental health: 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline has been signed by the Governor. In his signing message, the Governor noted that more work needs to be done, "(I am)...directing the California Health and Human Services Agency to propose cleanup language as part of the 2023-24 Governor's Budget to ensure [...]