This week, I had the honor of welcoming more than 200 behavioral health care professionals to the California Hospital Association’s annual Behavioral Health Symposium. Over two days, we dug into the hard questions shaping California’s behavioral health future: how we build and retain a workforce to meet soaring patient demand, whether infrastructure investments will truly expand access to care, and what it takes to provide empathetic, person-centered support to a population whose needs are growing faster than the system built to serve them.
The stories shared in those rooms were insightful, candid, and in many cases, deeply personal. Just a few of the moments that stayed with me include:
- A clinician describing the impossible choice between meeting documentation requirements and spending meaningful time with patients
- A hospital leader outlining how their inpatient psychiatric unit is now full every single day with people in desperate crisis
- A peer-support specialist reminding us that while policy shapes systems, compassion shapes the outcomes
Those stories — and others just like them — happen every day across Northern and Central California, where communities are stepping up in creative and determined ways to address behavioral health needs.
Sonoma County is expanding behavioral health services for its homeless population that is disproportionately affected and too often overlooked. The Stanislaus Emergency Medical Services Agency recently launched a mobile crisis team to respond to behavioral health calls, deploying trained professionals rather than law enforcement and integrating behavioral health technicians, peer counselors, and substance use specialists into a single, nimble unit. And in the East Bay, Solano County’s behavioral health workgroup is rolling out the state’s expanded conservatorship requirements using a smart “train-the-trainer” model to ensure clinicians feel confident and supported in writing and lifting 5150 holds.
This work is never easy, and the holidays can be some of the most challenging days of the year for behavioral health patients and the caregivers who support them. Stress, isolation, and unmet needs don’t take time off for festivities.
This is why collaboration matters now more than ever. Californians depend on a strong, compassionate, and coordinated behavioral health system. Hospitals cannot do this alone. Community partners cannot do this alone. Governments cannot do this alone. But together, we can build a system that is robust, resilient, and worthy of the people who rely on it.
If the dedication and determination on display at this year’s symposium are any indication, I am confident that California’s behavioral health champions are ready to meet the moment.