Crisis Residential Programs Cornerstone of Investment in Mental Health Wellness Act

Thirty-five years after the passage of the Community Residential Treatment Systems Act (AB 3052: 1978), which established non-institutionalization as the policy of California, the movement to promote alternatives to hospital and other institutional 24-hour treatment settings was given a boost with the passage of the Investment in Mental Health Wellness Act (SB 82).

The Investment in Mental Health Wellness Act (IMHW) provides funding for the development of at least 2,000 crisis residential and crisis stabilization beds to address unmet needs and reduce the use of emergency rooms and hospital-based acute care.

CASRA representatives are working closely with the California Health Facility Financing Authority (CHFFA), which has been given the responsibility to oversee the implementation of this section of the Act to develop the evaluation criteria for submitted proposals. CASRA has argued strongly that a county that does not apply for funds to develop a crisis residential program should have to explain why not.

Although some believe there is a need for more acute inpatient beds, and CASRA does not disagree that in some parts of the state this may be the case, it is our assertion that what is truly needed is the development of crisis stabilization, psychiatric emergency, and crisis residential alternatives that are not hospital-based. Progress Foundation’s Dore Street is a prime example of a community-based response to a system’s acute care needs. It features a psychiatric emergency room and stabilization center attached to a crisis residential program.