As you all know, AB 114 passed the legislature and was signed by the Governor, repealing AB 3632 and implementing the realignment of mental health and other services to children with special needs. The governing legislation for our state is now the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) which mandates that "...all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education (FAPE) that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for employment and independent living." The California Department of Education (CDE) convened an AB 114 Transition Workgroup to assist school districts with the realignment and compliance with the differences between the repealed state law, AB 3632, and the Federal IDEA legislation. NAMI California was asked to participate as a stakeholder "family organization" on this Workgroup.

No one really knows how this transition is actually affecting the families of California and their children. So in collaboration with a few of our "Workgroup partners," we decided to ask the families and find out. NAMI California, T.A.S.K. (Team of Advocates for Special Children), Family SOUP, a family resource center to families of children with special needs, and Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) came together, drafted a survey, and sent it out in English and Spanish to our memberships and other organizations. As of this writing, we have received over 500 responses. The results will be tabulated and analyzed, and we hope to bring some clarity to the impact realignment is having on access to care and services for our state's children. The partners will be presenting to the California Department of Education on Feb. 16th, and we will get back to you next month to share the conclusions we reached from the results. So stay tuned.

Our representative on the AB 114 Transition Workgroup is Legislative Workgroup member, Roger Greenbaum. NAMI California would like to thank Roger for the many hours he has volunteered and for his tireless advocacy for the children of California. We would also like to thank the above listed partner organizations for their dedication to families, their many hours of service, and to all the family members who responded to our survey and took the time to provide us with this valuable information.  

-- Mark Gale

NAMI California Board of Directors, First Vice President

NAMI California Government Affairs and Public Policy Committee, Chair

We just completed a support group training in Modesto and graduated 19 facilitators. One of the trainees had this to say:  

"I was so impressed by the program... I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to gain such a valuable set of tools in an environment where I was surrounded by other family members who are passionate about the same cause.  I know that the training will allow me to be a far more effective and helpful facilitator."

Next month we will be offering a Basics training and a Spanish teacher training.

This March, NAMI California will be hosting our first two Regional Meetings of the year in Sacramento and Shasta Counties. We will be inviting the surrounding affiliates in each region, along with the Mental Health/Behavioral Health Directors representing these areas.  

During these meetings, affiliates will have the opportunity to represent their experience in MHSA and share thoughts on mental health issues in their communities. County Mental Health Directors will have the opportunity to express their plans for moving forward to engage stakeholders in planning, implementation, evaluation and other policy involvement.

There will be some advocacy workshops presented by the NAMI CAN! and MHSA programs and a break-out session for more in-depth discussion between local affiliates and county mental health representatives. NAMI California values these gatherings as a unique opportunity to develop relationships with our affiliate partners in some of the wide-reaching areas of our state and support local advocacy. We look forward to similar meetings which will be scheduled for the upcoming months of this year and will keep you posted as planning the meeting for your region draws near.

For more information on other statewide programs in Suicide Prevention, Stigma and Discrimination Reduction, and Student Mental Health, view this document, prepared by CalMHSA, which provides a  useful summary of each project. Like ours, many of these projects are just getting off the ground. The document provides a short description of each, along with key activities to be accomplished, and contact information for each lead agency. This should help begin to grasp both the breadth and depth of what to expect in upcoming implementation and give some idea of how we can become more involved. For more in-depth information, you may also visit the CalMHSA website.  

Here is a link to their "News to Use" page: http://calmhsa.org/documents/news-to-use/#messagePres .

Funded by the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA), the primary goal of Working Well Together is to ensure public mental health agencies are prepared to recruit, hire, train, support and retain multicultural clients, family members and parents/caregivers as employees.  

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