Mental Health

In California, geography creates significant barriers for people seeking early psychosis intervention and other treatment, because its 58 counties have 58 different public mental health programs, each with its own set of covered services. That's by design. Yet it creates troubling inequities.

A physician, an advocate, a public health specialist, a suicide-attempt survivor and a California state lawmaker gathered in downtown Sacramento today to offer their diagnosis of the state’s mental health system. The consensus: “We need to start from scratch.”

With fresh political attention on mental health, advocates are hoping California embraces humane and effective ways of averting some problems and solving others.

Housing costs have forced many board-and-care homes to shutter. Mental health advocates say the closures will exacerbate the homeless crisis in California.

Californians with mental illness—and their family members—describe pleading with insurance providers for the treatment they need.

In the past five years, the number of people in California deemed incompetent to stand trial and referred by a judge to state hospitals for treatment has soared—but there are nowhere near enough psychiatric beds to accommodate them.