Behavioral Health Equity

Behavioral Health Equity is the right to access quality health care for all populations regardless of the individual’s race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, or geographical location. This includes access to prevention, treatment, and recovery services for mental and substance use disorders.

Advancing health equity involves ensuring that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. This also applies to behavioral health. In conjunction with quality services, this involves addressing social determinants, such as employment and housing stability, insurance status, proximity to services, culturally responsive care – all of which have an impact on behavioral health outcomes.

What We are Doing to Advance Health Equity

Reducing Health Disparities and improving health equity is important to the Department of Behavioral Health. It is not a check box for us, nor do we want it to be for any who provide services in our system of care. While there are areas for improvement in our system of care, we also feel we are making advances in improving health equity. In the past few years, we have started self-examination of areas for improvement. We’ve invested in new trainings and changing processes which have contributed to disparities. We have sought to get greater community input and create programs that better meet the needs of our diverse community. Health Equity is not a singular goal for our Department and system of care, but rather an ongoing continuous process to best meet the on-going needs of our diverse and changing community. 

Cultural Humility Survey Results

Community Needs Assessments

• Every Neighborhood Partnership: ENP-Human-Centered-Community-Needs-Assessment-combined.pdf(PDF, 332KB)
• Jewel of Justice - Community Participatory Action Project: Report-Recomendation-Eval-AfrAm-CPAR-Year-1-Final.pdf(PDF, 398KB)
• The Children's Movement: TCM_DBH_MH_RevisedFINAL.pdf(PDF, 12MB) 

Annual Cultural Competency Plan Requirement

Click HERE to view Annual Cultural Competency Plan Requirement

DBH Language Guides

The Department of Behavioral Health has developed documents to assist service providers when caring for persons-served whose preferred language is Spanish or Hmong.

These guide is constantly being reviewed and improved upon.

Access the Spanish guide HERE(DOCX, 146KB)

(rev. 10/6/2022)

Racism is a Public Health Crisis

On March 16, 2021, a consortium of county leaders, including the County Behavioral Health Directors of California, issued a statement supporting that racism is a public health crisis.  Please review the attached document for the commitment our department is making with this statement.

Please note that the issuance of this statement is not a box that we check off, and then, sit back.  This statement is part of holding ourselves accountable to do the work that the statement commits to.  Our department is already on this path and we are hopeful that our continued work will move us steadily toward these aims. We are committed.  

- DBH Leadership Team

Resources

• Complimentary Healer Policies(PDF, 648KB)
• Application for Eligibility Complimentary Holistic Providers(PDF, 837KB)
• CRDP Phase II Fact Sheet(PDF, 273KB)
• 2012 Cultural Awareness Self-Assessment(PDF, 535KB)

Mental Health Terms — Resources

• CCC Glossary of Terms English/Spanish(PDF, 25KB)
• Hmong MH Terminology(PDF, 85KB)
• Language Access For MH(PDF, 267KB)

Health Equity Multi-Cultural Diversity Training (HEMCDT)

• 2018-2019 FY HEMCDT Training Dates(PDF, 129KB) 
• 2017-2018 FY HEMCDT Training Dates(PDF, 1MB)
• 2017-2018 FY HEMCDT Training Details(PDF, 207KB)

Providers with access to the Department's Learning Management System, Relias can access additional foundational trainings.