SECTIONS 4341-4341.5 - California Statutes

WELFARE AND INSTITUTIONS CODE

SECTION 4341-4341.5

4341. (a) In order to ensure the availability of an adequate number
of persons from all disciplines necessary to implement appropriate
and effective services to severely mentally ill persons of all ages
and ethnic groups, the department shall, to the extent resources are
available, implement a Human Resources Development Program.
(b) Implementation of the program shall include negotiation with
any or all of the following: the University of California, state
colleges, community colleges, private universities and colleges,
public and private hospitals, and public and private rehabilitation,
community care, treatment providers, and professional associations,
to arrange affiliations and contracts for educational and training
programs to ensure appropriate numbers of graduates with experience
in serving severely mentally ill persons in the most cost-effective
programs.
(c) The human resources development effort shall be undertaken
with active participation of the California Conference of Local
Mental Health Directors, client and family representatives, and
professional and academic institutions.
(d) The program shall give particular attention to areas of
specific expertise where local programs and state hospitals have
difficulty recruiting qualified staff, including programs for
forensic persistently severely mentally ill children and youth, and
severely mentally ill elderly persons. Specific attention shall be
given to ensuring the development of a mental health work force with
the necessary bilingual and bicultural skills to deliver effective
service to the diverse population of the state.

4341.1. (a) The task force funded by Schedule (a) of Item
4440-001-0001 of Section 2.00 of the Budget Act of 2000 (Ch. 52,
Stats. 2000) to address and identify options for meeting the staffing
needs of state and county health, human services, and criminal
justice agencies shall include a representative from the State
Department of Mental Health, who shall serve as chair, the Secretary
of the Health and Human Services Agency or his or her designee, a
representative of the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency, the
Secretary for Education or his or her designee, a representative of
the California Mental Health Planning Council, and representatives of
the University of California, including the University of California
medical schools and medical residency training programs, the
California State University, the California Community Colleges, the
California School Boards Association, the Association of California
School Administrators, the Medical Board of California, the Board of
Behavioral Sciences, the Board of Psychology, the California Mental
Health Directors Association, the California Council of Community
Mental Health Agencies, the National Alliance for the Mentally
Ill-California, the California Network of Mental Health Clients, the
United Advocates for Children of California, and the California
Alliance of Child and Family Services. The State Department of Mental
Health shall provide staff to the task force.
(b) The task force shall do all of the following:
(1) Study the shortage of mental health workers in publicly funded
mental health services and develop recommendations for expansion of
all of the following:
(A) Programs such as the Human Services Academy currently
established by the Mental Health Association of Los Angeles and the
Los Angeles Unified School District to offer high school students
education about mental health problems, services, and information
about the meaning and value to society of service in publicly funded
mental health care.
(B) Programs that expand graduate school programs.
(C) Ways to expand the utilization of those who have been
consumers of mental health services.
(D) Ways to engage community college students, four-year college
undergraduates, and college graduates in careers leading to mental
health service.
(E) Efforts to change the curriculum of programs, undergraduate,
graduate, and postgraduate, including medical residency programs,
that could lead to employment in public mental health programs to
make sure there is clinical training and education that complements
and supports employment in public mental health programs.
(F) Revisions, as may be necessary, to licensing requirements
including recommendations for proposed legislation, and scope of
practice issues that maximize the opportunity to utilize consumers
and are consistent with the types of services likely to be required
to serve seriously emotionally disturbed children and severely
mentally ill adults who need a wide array of services as set forth in
the children's and adults' systems of care.
(G) Financial supports in the form of stipends, loan forgiveness,
or other programs that could be accomplished through state or federal
funds that would further support the need for employment.
(2) Annually quantify the need for different types of providers in
different regions of the state including the cost, positions, and
projected future needs.
(3) Evaluate the impact of competition from the private sector on
the availability of mental health professionals in the public sector.
(4) Address other issues of collaboration and coordination between
the educational system, the licensing boards, and the mental health
system that are impeding progress in expanding the mental health
workforce.
(5) Address issues of collaboration and coordination within the
various levels of the educational system that are impeding progress
in expanding the mental health workforce.
(6) Develop recommendations to ensure all of the following:
(A) Two-year and four-year colleges have sufficient capacity to
train all the mental health staff needed.
(B) Issues that obstruct development of a career ladder between
two-year and four-year schools are eliminated.
(C) Community college programs have clear delineation of both
skills and theory that need to be mastered for each type of position.
(D) There are new certificate programs for psychosocial
rehabilitation at the community college level and post baccalaureate
case management.
(7) Examine options for collaboration on curriculum between
employees in the public mental health system, and high schools,
community colleges, and undergraduate and graduate education
programs.
(c) The task force shall issue a progress report to the
Legislature on its findings on or before May 1, 2001, and shall issue
a final report to the Legislature on or before May 1, 2002.

4341.5. In order to ensure an adequate number of qualified
psychiatrists and psychologists with forensic skills, the State
Department of Mental Health shall, to the extent resources are
available, plan with the University of California, private
universities, and the California Postsecondary Education Commission,
for the development of programs for the training of psychiatrists and
psychologists with forensic skills, and recommend appropriate
incentive measures, such as state scholarships.