HCAI outlines funding, eligibility and service obligations for Peer Personnel training as BH Connect funds arrive

The Department of Health Care Access and Information told applicants during a webinar that the Peer Personnel Training and Placement Program will continue under limited annual funds for 2025 while larger BH Connect Workforce Initiative resources become available after July 1, 2025.

Wahida Nawal, grants section chief for health workforce development at HCAI, opened with the agency’s mission to expand equitable access to care and described HCAI’s workforce focus before Clinton Ramstad, program manager for the PEER program, described how the current grant rules and new state workforce funds will affect applicants.

The nut graf: HCAI said organizations should apply even though this year’s discretionary funding is low because the forthcoming BH Connect Workforce Initiative (a state program administered in partnership with the Department of Health Care Services) will provide substantially larger, multi‑year support but brings additional eligibility and service‑commitment rules that applicants must meet.

Clinton Ramstad summarized how the PEER program works now and under BH Connect. “Peer personnel are individuals with lived experience as a mental behavioral health services consumer, family member, and or caregiver placed in designated peer positions,” he said, and applicants must provide training that meets the DHCS Medi‑Cal peer support specialist 80‑hour certification requirement. For the current cycle HCAI has $2,000,000 secured and said that…