Special Notice / Hearing: None__
Vote Required: Majority
To: Honorable Board of Supervisors
From: Louise F. Rogers, Chief, San Mateo County Health
Jei Africa, Director, Behavioral Health, and Recovery Services
Subject: Expansion of Behavioral Health HEAL Team through Bridge Housing Grant Program
RECOMMENDATION:
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Adopt a resolution authorizing the addition of two new Unclassified Full-Time Psychiatric Social Worker/Marriage and Family Therapy I/II positions and one new Unclassified Full-time Case Management Assessment Specialist position to start on March 1, 2024
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BACKGROUND:
The Behavioral Health Bridge Housing (BHBH) Grant Program is a program from the State of California through its Department of Health Care Services (DHCS). BHBH includes funding to be awarded to County behavioral health departments in order to operate bridge housing settings to address the immediate and sustainable housing needs of people experiencing homelessness who have serious behavioral health conditions, including serious mental illness (SMI) and/or substance use disorder (SUD).
The BHBH Program, which was signed into law in September 2022 under Assembly Bill 179 (Ting, Chapter 249, Statutes of 2022), provided $1,500,000,000 statewide in funding through June 30, 2027, to address the immediate housing and treatment needs of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness and who have serious behavioral health conditions. San Mateo County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services (BHRS) was awarded a grant of $10,246,862 for the term of June 23, 2023, through June 30, 2027, by DHCS.
DISCUSSION:
EBHRS proposes to hire two new unclassified Psychiatric Social Worker/Marriage and Family Therapy I/II (PSW/MFT I/II) Homeless, Engagement, Assessment, and Linkage (HEAL) clinicians who will rotate through the County's emergency shelters for adults (six programs consisting of a total of 627 beds, including a mix of congregate and non-congregate programs) to pr...
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