New Behavioral Health department
After six months of crunching numbers and considering the
consequences, San Benito County has combined its Mental Health
Services and Substance Abuse Services into one department. The
Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the creation of a new
Behavioral Health Department March 7.
New Behavioral Health department
After six months of crunching numbers and considering the consequences, San Benito County has combined its Mental Health Services and Substance Abuse Services into one department. The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the creation of a new Behavioral Health Department March 7.
“It makes sense,” said Alan Yamamoto, the director of Mental Health Services for San Benito County. “If you look at trends statewide, you’ll find more consolidation of departments as Behavioral Health. I think we’ve all arrived at the same decision that it really works.”
Residents who make use of the substance abuse program are sometimes also in need of mental health services, and vice versa, according to Yamamoto.
“We noticed a great deal of frequency that people who use our involuntary detention services have a substance abuse problem, too,” Yamamoto said. “People are drawn to substance abuse as a way of managing health.”
The combination of the programs under one department will help provide the best services to residents who could benefit from both mental health and drug or alcohol programs.
“We are looking at the potential of, rather than giving services individually, of cross-training staff so they can do both,” Yamamoto said. “During the intake process we are looking at ways we can take a more comprehensive look.”
With the transition to one department, three positions have been eliminated and three new positions have been added. The positions eliminated from the Substance Abuse services included a program administrator, a therapist and a secretary. The new positions added are a program manager, an office assistant and an accounting technician/accountant position.
Many of the administrative or support positions will be shared between branches, saving about $140,966 in salaries for the 2005-2006 fiscal year.
“We can help streamline and strengthen [the services,]” Yamamoto said. “The substance abuse services is smaller and we have a stronger infrastructure to support it.”
As it is reorganized, the Behavioral Health Department will have five branches. Child and Adolescent Services, Adult and Older Adult Services and the Medication/Telemedicine Services branches will administer the mental health programs. The other branches will include the Drug and Alcohol Services and the Fiscal/Data branch. All of the programs currently exist in some form, but will be expanded with the new combination of resources.
The fiscal/data branch will benefit from the combination of the two programs as it increases staff while undergoing an overhaul of the management information systems and moves toward keeping electronic charts instead of paper-based filings.
“We waste a tremendous amount of space and dollars storing paper,” Yamamoto said.
The fiscal/data branch will also be responsible for tracking the use of services so that future recommendations can be made to better provide services.
“We want to look at data of our service productivity,” Yamamoto said. “How many hours are used with clients? Where are our resources being directed – children or adult services?”
In the future, the data collection and analysis will be used to make decisions about how resources are used and how programs should be designed, Yamamoto said.
“If you don’t have good data,” he said. “It’s hard to get a snap shot of those trends.”
The reorganization of the departments into one comes at a time when the county anticipates a windfall of funding from the statewide Mental Health Services Act. The Act, passed by Proposition 63 in 2004, requires a 1 percent tax on residents who claim more than $1 million in income to go to mental health. 20 percent of the money collected is given to prevention and early intervention programs run by each county.
In their presentation to the board, Yamamoto and County Administrative Officer Susan Thompson shared a proposed organizational chart of the new Behavioral Health Department. The flow chart included existing positions, those funded by the MHSA and new positions that will be created with more MHSA funding.
Yamamoto anticipates that San Benito County will receive $730,000 annually from MHSA, though the amount could increase depending on the taxes collected each year on millionaires.
The services of the Behavioral Health Department are available to any San Benito County resident. The programs accept private health insurances and offer services on a sliding scale.
“We are open to anyone and it’s a very unusual situation for county mental health departments these days,” Yamamoto said.
