Research

For many of its programs, CalMHSA collaborates with independent researchers for rigorous data analysis and impartial evaluation in order to gain a complete view of outcomes, efficiencies and lessons learned. These expert evaluations have helped inform decision-making and optimize strategies for important mental health initiatives such as: 

• Funding Public Behavioral Health
  As currently configured, the state’s mental health system provides significantly less care than clinical guidelines recommend and serves only about 80% of those eligible. RAND researchers found California’s county mental health systems need more than $9billion of additional investment to the critical need for evidence-based outpatient mental health services among adults.
• Medi-Cal Peer Support Specialist Certification Program
  County behavioral health plans selected CalMHSA to implement a single, standardized Medi-Cal Peer Support Specialist certification program. This RAND report explores the positive outcomes for Peer specialists and offers recommendations for further development. 
• Full-Service Partnerships
  This CalMHSA program gives counties greater access to data for use in enhancing full-service partnership (FSP) services for people who are unhoused or at risk of becoming unhoused, have a severe mental illness, history of contact with the criminal justice system, and have had multiple hospitalizations. A RAND Corp. analysis found that the number of psychiatric admissions decreased on average by 2.5 admissions for FSP participants who enrolled after the start of the project.  
• Help@Hand Five-Year Innovation Project
  Help@Hand is a collaborative of cities and counties created to determine if and how technology fits within the behavioral health system of care. UC Irvine researchers found that over 70% of teens and 80% of adults rated online tools useful for addressing mental health concerns as useful.   
• Psychiatric Bed Needs Analysis
  California has long been confronting a shortage of psychiatric beds. This report estimates psychiatric bed capacity, need and shortages for adults at each of three levels of care throughout California: acute, subacute and community residential services.