A seemingly innocuous proposal to offer scholarships for mental health workers in California’s new court-ordered treatment program has sparked debate over whether the state should prioritize that program or tackle a wider labor shortage in behavioral health services.
Nine counties have begun rolling out the Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment Act, which Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed into law in 2022 to get people with untreated schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders, many of them incarcerated or homeless, into treatment. But often those skilled clinicians have been pulled by counties from other understaffed behavioral health programs.
“There’s just so much change coming with a limited workforce, limited treatment resources, and high expectations for counties to solve things like homelessness,” said Scott Kennelly, director of the Butte County Behavioral Health Department. “It’s like I’m turning on a fire hose and saying, ‘Start drinking.’”
The bill by state Sen. Tom Umberg would create an annual scholarship fund for students who pursue a mental health profession provided they work for three years with CARE Court. Umberg had requested $10 million for the program, but it’s unclear how many students would receive the scholarship, said Jackie Koenig, a spokesperson for the senator. The bill sailed through the legislature without a single lawmaker voting against it.
Umberg, a Democrat from Orange County, said CARE Court deserves targeted funding because it’s a new program, and he noted other state scholarships are available for students pursuing a behavioral health degree. For instance, the state announced in March 2023 that it would issue $118 million in grants to support behavioral hea …