Memorandum
Date: October 5, 2021
To: The Honorable Lake County Board of Supervisors
From: Todd Metcalf, MPA, Director Lake County Behavioral Health Services
Subject: Approve the Agreement between County of Lake and the Lake County Office of Education for the Mental Health Student Services Act Program for Fiscal Year 2021-26 in the amount of $2,112,250.00 and authorize the chair to sign
Executive Summary:
In early 2020, Lake County Behavioral Health Services (LCBHS), in partnership with the Lake County Office of Education (LCOE), applied for a Mental Health Student Services Act (MHSSA) grant, which was offered by the California Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission (MHSOAC). This competitive grant was designed to incentivize partnerships between behavioral health departments and education agencies for the purpose of increasing access to mental health services in locations that are easily accessible to students and their families. The grant was designed to provide support services that include, at a minimum, services provided on school campuses, suicide prevention services, drop-out prevention services, placement assistance and service plans for students in need of ongoing services, and outreach to high-risk youth, including foster youth, youth who identify as LGBTQ, and youth who have been expelled or suspended from school. LCBHS and LCOE designed a proposal that would include additional mental health staff for LCOE to provide services and increase access to mental health interventions. Unfortunately, due to the competitive nature of the grant, Lake County was not awarded the grant.
However, one pandemic later, in April of 2021, the MHSOAC contacted Lake County about revising the grant for Lake County. The State of California was budgeting funding to assist youth and students returning to school with mental health needs brought about or exacerbated by the pandemic and using this grant as a means to distribute that funding. As Lake...
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