Medi-Cal

California health officials plan to reform its public health system, in part to better serve the mental health needs of kids in foster care.

A program in Northern California offers foster youth ages 12 through 18 with milder mental health symptoms free weekly teletherapy sessions.

California has proposed plans for improved access to an array of pediatric mental health services — before children reach a crisis state.

As the California Assembly struggles to begin creating new laws on Monday amid the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic, lawmakers are being urged to select only the most vital-to-the-times bills. To contain infections that have topped 43,000 in the state, there will be masks and gloves, and people seated far from each other in cavernous hearing rooms.

As California works to transform its Medicaid program, a new statewide task force will tackle how to improve the state’s mental health and drug abuse services for its most vulnerable residents.

Alex Briscoe didn’t know much about how local governments pay for mental health care when he joined Alameda County’s Health Care Services Agency in 2004. But he knew there was a problem.

  Jasmine Moise picks up 2-year-old Aiden* and puts the toddler on her lap. It might simply look like a foster mother bonding with her foster son, but it’s much more serious.

Adela Carranco was just 11 years old when her mother discovered she was planning to kill herself. Her suicidal intentions were tapped out in cold detail on her cell phone, from options for ending her life  — take pills, get run over, or slit her wrists — to notes saying goodbye to loved ones.

This week, The Imprint is publishing a series of posts from leading candidates running to succeed Jerry Brown as California’s next governor. The state’s longest-serving governor, Brown leaves behind a legacy of strong fiscal stewardship and emphasis on local control for many child-serving systems.