Report 2017-117 Recommendation 11 Responses
Report 2017-117: Mental Health Services Act: The State Could Better Ensure the Effective Use of Mental Health Services Act Funding (Release Date: February 2018)
Recommendation #11 To: Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services
To strengthen its monitoring of MHSA projects and ensure that it spends MHSA funds appropriately, Alameda should develop and implement MHSA program monitoring guidelines to ensure that staff appropriately perform and document their monitoring activities.
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2019
Alameda County has completed its Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) monitoring guidelines for all ongoing MHSA funded programs. A dedicated team has completed the guidelines which were posted to the the County website on 6/25/19. These guidelines were in use as of July 1, 2019 for FY 19/20.
With these guidelines in place Alameda now has a monitoring mechanism to ensure that staff appropriately perform and document their monitoring activities.
- Completion Date: June 2019
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented
1-Year Agency Response
Alameda County is continuing to make progress on finalizing its Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) monitoring guidelines for all ongoing MHSA funded programs. A dedicated team has completed a draft version of the guidelines which are currently being reviewed by the MHSA Division Director and the Network Office (contracting office) Director for edits and further refinement. Alameda expects to have the monitoring guidelines in place by the end of FY 18/19 and will have annual reports for all ongoing MHSA programs in place by the end of FY 18/19.
- Estimated Completion Date: June 30, 2019
- Response Date: February 2019
California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Pending
6-Month Agency Response
Alameda County is making significant progress towards the development of MHSA monitoring guidelines for all ongoing MHSA funded programs. A dedicated team is meeting regularly and has consolidated and cataloged all current ongoing MHSA funded programs, the existing monitoring processes and best practices. To date the team has discussed various categories/tiers of monitoring to include in the guidelines, e.g. desk monitoring in regular intervals based on the type of MHSA funded program, site visits, TA contacts/visits, and provider/county meetings. Alameda expects to have the monitoring guidelines in place by the end of FY 18/19 and will have annual reporting guidelines and reports for all ongoing MHSA programs in place by the end of FY 18/19.
- Estimated Completion Date: FY 18/19 (approx May 2019)
- Response Date: August 2018
California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending
60-Day Agency Response
Alameda County has begun reviewing all current MHSA monitoring tools and procedures. Staff have been identified to work on this process and are meeting regularly to identify all current monitoring processes. The review and identification of best practices in relation to MHSA monitoring will continue until the end of the fiscal year FY 17/18. We will then consolidate these documents into one user manual that will be available to all staff members via our website in FY 18/19. Revisions to the users' manual will be made as needed to ensure the manual is current at all times. The staff will be advised of all revisions.
- Estimated Completion Date: FY 18/19 (approx May 2019)
- Response Date: April 2018
California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending
All Recommendations in 2017-117
Agency responses received are posted verbatim.