This project, funded by the California Department of Mental Health, was designed to provide technical assistance to counties as they prepare their Three-Year Program and Expenditure Plan Requirements for Community Services and Supports.
Complementing other areas of training and technical assistance about the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA), "Using Data for MHSA Planning" was designed to accomplish the following:
- Achieve a better understanding of the universe of data sources--their relevance, value and limitations
- Communicate a hopeful sense that data will help in practical ways
- Collect and disseminate successful efforts to organize data
- Identify further needs for technical assistance
- Identify potential resources for technical assistance
An important principle of these technical assistance activities is that the needs assessments conducted for the CSS Requirements are but a first step in transforming systems. Ongoing re-evaluation of prevalence, service use, community indicators and outreach activities will be required to monitor success at targeting underserved and unserved individuals, and improving their outcomes.
Technical assistance activities for "Using Data" have consisted of a webcast summarizing the CSS Requirements, held on August 8, 2005 and four regional trainings held on August 10 (Sacramento), August 17 (Long Beach), August 24 (Modesto) and August 31 (Burlingame). Presentations and handouts from these events are downloadable as an online Technical Assistance Manual. For more information or to request technical assistance contact at the Department of Mental Health, 916-653-4608.
Technical Assistance Manual-- Using Data for MHSA Planning: Making Data Work for You
Downloadable presentations and documents from technical assistance events
| Document Link |
Description |
| 1. Training Brief: A Primer for Using Data to Plan Mental Health Services (in development) |
Training brief on using population, prevalence, services and focus group data |
| 2. Assessing Need: Initial Populations and Cultural Competency |
A compilation of data sources and methodologies for understanding the unmet needs of individuals and communities |
| 3. Overview of CSS Plan: Requirements for Data |
Handout of presentation by Pat Jordan at the 8/8/05 webcast |
4. Using Data for Mental Health Planning-Part I (Resources)
5. Using Data for Mental Health Planning-Part II (Exercises) Download sample data spreadsheets:
5a. Sample County Utilization Pivot Table
5b. Sample County Utilization Client Summary |
Handouts from DMH staff presenting an overview of Census data, national and statewide prevalence data, DMH data, and other sources of data. Part I is an overview of various types of population, prevalence and service. Part II consists of guided exercises using the Census American Factfinder website, and sample (de-identified) data from the ITWS pivot tables |
| 6. Annotated Bibliography of Prevalence Rate Research |
Brief summaries and references of major research for general and specialized populations |
| 7. Mental Health Services Act System of Care Workgroups, June 6th and 7th 2005: Older Adult System of Care (Stanislaus County) |
Handout by Mark Morrison, M.S.W. presenting an example of Stanislaus County's methods and processes of obtaining stakeholder input, integrating stakeholder and administrative data, presenting data, and prioritizing MHSA services |
| 8. Integrating Prevalence, Utilization and GIS Data (Riverside County) |
Presentation handout by Ryan Quist, Ph.D. of Riverside County, illustrating how Geographical Information Systems was used to develop reports on services distribution and need |
| 9. Using Data for Regional Planning (Alameda County) |
Presentation handout by Janet Biblin of Alameda County, illustrating the use of enhanced prevalence reports and spreadsheet methods to estimate unserved in county regional areas |
| 10. Overview of "Using Data" Trainings and Evaluation |
Overview slides of the purpose of the "Using Data" trainings, and summary of the participant evaluations |
| 11. MHSA Data Technical Assistance--Needs Inventory Results |
Table showing the results of the technical assistance needs survey of the "Using Data…" participating counties |
Other Important Links:
DMH MHSA Site
DMH ITWS Web Page
UTMB Website (for Charles Holzer's project "Estimation of the Need for Mental Health Services)