California Women’s Mental Health Policy Council

Principles for Medi-Cal Reform Discussions

The California Women’s Mental Health Policy Council, founded in 1999, is a statewide non-partisan organization, with a mission to ensure effective, gender-specific culturally appropriate mental health services for women and girls. The Policy Council achieves its missions through training, research, and advocating with other statewide partners.

The Policy Council believes that women and girls will be well served when:

  • Services are provided in an integrated, multi-disciplinary approach to the complex needs of women with social, mental and physical health problems;
  • Service provision recognizes a women’s role in families and ensures consideration of that role as a context for services and, at times, the focus of services;
  • Services reflect the full diversity of women throughout their life span.

The Policy Council has recently issued a report that finds that young girls and adolescents in the public mental health system are less likely than boys to access mental health services; that among Medi-Cal clients, females under 40 are less likely than males to receive mental health services and that this disparity is consistent across many ethnic groups. A summary of the report is attached..

As California contemplates significant Medi-Cal reform, in the context of major state and local funding constraints, we believe that service design must take into account these concerns and findings.

  • It is important that increased fragmentation in services to women and girls does not occur due to reform; women and girls should have services delivered in a system that is coordinated and efficient and that meets their unique needs.
  • Access to services must not be reduced for women and girls;
  • Reform may offer an opportunity to assure that services are designed to identify women and girls in need early and to support culturally diverse women in their diverse roles.

The WMHPC will advocate for and support reforms consistent with the above principles.