Advisory committee recommends strategic plan addendum to align commission work with Behavioral Health Services Act

The Strategic Plan Advisory Committee of the Commission for Behavioral Health on April 1, 2026 voted to recommend a strategic plan addendum that aligns the commission s work with the Behavioral Health Services Act (BHSA) and sets four priorities: serving people with the highest behavioral health needs (including Full Service Partnerships), treating substance use disorders as a standalone priority, expanding peer behavioral health services, and building evidence for innovative statewide strategies.

Brenda Gish, executive director of the Commission for Behavioral Health, told the committee the addendum is meant to "put our current strategic plan through the lens of the Behavioral Health Services Act" and to prepare the commission for the BHSA implementation date next summer. "We are coming up on that July 1, 2026 implementation date," Gish said, noting the addendum is intended as an "overlay" to existing work rather than a wholesale rewrite of the 2024-27 plan.

The committee ebated whether the BHSA narrows the commission s statutory focus and whether the four priorities would exclude issues raised by newly appointed commissioners. "I'm not clear what the priorities mean," Commissioner Carnival said, asking how workforce, aging, veterans and other governor-appointed priorities would be supported under the proposed structure. Carnival urged the commission to "represent all needs across the system" rather than narrow its scope.

Gish and several commissioners replied that the addendum is designed to organize existing projects within the BHSA framework, not to preclude other work. "A lot of the work that we're already doing is showing up in these [priorities]," Gish said. Commissioners including Fernandez and Sai argued the document aligns with statutory priorities and recognizes that the commission must prioritize given finite staff and grant resources.

The addendum sets measurable results under each priority, and staff and consultants outlined draft implementation strategies to carry the results forward through the end of 2027 without new funding. Proposed strategies include leveraging stakeholder advocacy contracts to improve two-way communications, analyzing county BHSA integrated plans to identify allocation patterns, expanding the commission s transparency suite, preserving institutional knowledge from Full Service Partnerships (FSPs) during the transition, developing a proposed standard of care for priority populations, documenting housing-placement decisions for FSP participants, expanding medication-assisted treatment and school-based SUD services, and funding peer respite and other peer-run programs.

Several commissioners asked that the addendum explicitly make clear how the commission will exercise its advisory role through studies and reports. Commissioner Brown urged that the commission preserve a standing ability to conduct studies and produce reports that inform the governor, legislature and the public. Gish said such work is already within the commission s portfolio and can be anchored to Priority One (those with the highest behavioral health needs), but she agreed staff would add clarifying language in the document or implementation materials to make the advisory and study role more explicit.

Public commenters flagged implementation and data concerns. Steve McN, a local behavioral health advisory board member from Orange County, urged stronger two-way communication with county boards and highlighted workforce shortages and what he described as a roughly "$400 million" underspend in FSP allocations. Lauren Retaliata of "Kosta County" asked whether the commission would prioritize converting FSP teams to evidence-based Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) or Flexible ACT models; Gish said the Department of Healthcare Services is leading ACT/FACT implementation and the commission would evaluate fidelity and quality through its data and evaluation work.

Commissioner Wilks moved and Commissioner Sai seconded that the advisory committee recommend the strategic plan addendum to the full commission. In the roll call that followed, Commissioner Carnival voted no; Commissioners Brown, Farweather, Sai, Wilks, Fernandez and Larson voted to recommend the addendum. The motion passed.

Next steps: the advisory committee will forward the recommended addendum to the full commission for consideration at the May meeting. If the full commission adopts the addendum, staff said they will begin operationalizing implementation metrics with consultants starting in June and July 2026 and will report progress at future commission meetings.