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Health Department outlines Mental Health SF rollout, street crisis teams and hiring plan
Summary
Acting Behavioral Health Director Marlo Simmons and the mental health reform team presented a three-year implementation plan that includes an Office of Coordinated Care, street crisis-response teams, a low-threshold mental health service center and batch hiring to fill dozens of vacancies.
San Francisco's Department of Public Health presented detailed plans to reorganize behavioral health services and implement Mental Health SF reforms, with a strong emphasis on centralized access, data-driven placement of street crisis teams and workforce expansion.
Acting Director Marlo Simmons described a new organizational structure and a set of "True North" metrics that will guide work over three years, focusing on timely access, engagement, culturally relevant care and workforce development. She said the department is addressing "access and flow" problems by centralizing waitlists using an Avatar call-intake module and by planning batch hiring of clinicians to fill dozens of vacancies. "We have 97 vacancies on the BHS hiring plan," Simmons said, and described plans to run initial round interviews for a new BHS and Mental Health SF director.
The department detailed a street crisis-response model that pairs a paramedic, a behavioral-health clinician and a trained peer provider for many 911 calls now routed to police. Simmons said the first team is aimed to be live in November with up to six teams by the end of the fiscal year and data-driven placement thereafter. A separate, low-threshold mental health service center is in development; the service model (intake, assessment, pharmacy, psychiatry, transport and short-term stabilization) will be finalized with the implementation working group before committing to space and operations.
Why it matters: the plans are intended to expand behavioral-health access for people experiencing homelessness and to integrate new revenue sources (including Prop C funds and redirected budget items) into a coordinated system of care. Commissioners asked for concise scorecards and periodic data briefings; staff said a formal evaluation for the street crisis teams will begin and initial findings could be available in early 2021.
Next steps: implementation work will continue across five priority areas (coordinated care, street crisis teams, service centers, beds and implementation support), the department will provide regular progress snapshots and hiring dashboards, and staff will pursue contract and real-estate work needed for new facilities.
