NAMI California has examined what the Governor’s May Revision budget proposal means for individuals impacted by mental illness and their families, and we are deeply concerned that the proposed cuts threaten decades-old, voter-approved funding to include the family voice in state advocacy. We are shocked to see proposed cuts to the Commission for Behavioral Health’s (CBH) community advocacy infrastructure, the elimination of CBH Community Advocacy Program, efforts to shift BHSA funding to the General Fund and cuts to crucial mobile crisis services. Amid historic behavioral health changes, the family voice is needed more than ever and is now under threat due to the proposed budget cuts. 

The May Revision permanently eliminates the Community Advocacy Program, which funds the contracts that allow families, consumers, parents, youth, immigrant and refugee communities, veterans, LGBTQIA+ communities, racial and ethnic communities, and other impacted groups to participate in behavioral health policy, planning, oversight, and implementation. That is not a minor administrative reduction. It is a cut to the public participation structure that helps make BHSA implementation accountable to the people it is supposed to serve.  

Californians supported Proposition 1 so it could expand prevention, early intervention for those experiencing mental illness, and increase community-based care, and these funds must remain dedicated to those purposes. We must ensure BHSA dollars are used as voters intended: to expand and strengthen behavioral health services, accountability, innovation, and community voice, not to simply backfill General Fund obligations. 

NAMI California urges the Governor and State Legislature to fully protect California’s behavioral health investments, create greater transparency in how BHSA funding is being allocated, and reject efforts to shift BHSA funding to the General Fund.  

Finally, we must continue investing in our state’s behavioral health crisis response system. NAMI California and our affiliates, including family members, advocates, and individuals impacted by mental illness across the state, remain deeply concerned about shifting the financial burden of our state’s mobile crisis response system to counties as it will overwhelm local communities to foot the bill for this essential service. Mobile crisis services reduce emergency room visits and law enforcement involvement while connecting individuals to timely care. We call on the Newsom Administration to close the funding gap left by expiring federal dollars and protect mobile crisis response services statewide. 

California has made historic commitments to behavioral health transformation. Now is the time to fully fund and strengthen these efforts, not scale them back. We are ready to work together with the Governor and the Legislature to ensure that behavioral health services are fully funded as we continue to lead the change in how we address mental illness and protect the family voice when it is needed most.

You can read a more in-depth analysis of the budget from NAMI California here.

Jessica Wilson (Cruz) 
CEO of NAMI California