BEHAVIORAL HEALTH DEPARTMENT - A. YAMAMOTO

Approve Memorandum of Understanding between the Superior Court of California and the San Benito County Behavioral Health Department for project related staff related to the MHSA Innovation Project.

SBC FILE NUMBER: 810

At the Board of Supervisors meeting on August 21, 2018 the board approved the 2018-19 MHSA Annual Plan Update and budget that included the new MHSA funded Innovative Project to implement the Behavioral Health (BH) Mentally Diversion and Re-entry Court Project.  The Innovation (INN) project component focuses on partnerships with BH and the Superior Court, Jail, Probation and other justice related partners.  The INN project is built around a concept intended to divert mentally ill and substance abusing individuals from jail to BH treatment as well as facilitate early reentry of the same category of individuals from jail to the community and BH treatment.  The Board's approval of the INN project included the budget for the project that allowed for BH to fund a half time Court Clerk and half time Probation Officer.

We have been busy implementing the project and it is progressing well, but it was recently brought to our attention that the appropriate method to transfer the BH funding to the Superior Court and the Probation Dept. for their staff's time devoted to the project, should be documented through Memorandum's of Understanding (MOU's). We have also been informed that the BH MOU with the County Probation Dept. does not require Board review/approval but that the BH MOU with the Superior Court does require Board review/approval.

OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT:

Typically Law Enforcement, and other Justice Related Entities serve the clients involved with this project.

1)  Approve the Memorandum of Understanding for Behavioral Health to reimburse the San Benito County Superior Court for a half time Court Clerk for duties related to the MHSA Innovation Project.

2)  Authorize the County Behavioral Health Director to sign MOU.