View some of the recent highlights of the CYBHI and its partner departments. 

  • January, 2024: Launched the first cohort of school districts to participate in the new statewide, multi-payer fee schedule which will expand access to behavioral health services at or near schools.
  • January, 2024: Launched two Behavioral Health Virtual Services Platforms that provide free, safe, and confidential mental health support to young people and families: BrightLife Kids for children ages 0-12 and their parents or caregivers, and Soluna for young people ages 13-25.
  • December 2023: In 2023, HCAI awarded more than $264.6 million to expand the behavioral health workforce through education and training.
  • December, 2023: DHCS awarded $150 million to 262 organizations to support trauma-informed practices designed to address the impact of trauma and support the resilience of children and youth.
  • December, 2023: Launched a statewide marketing and outreach campaign to promote the new Certified Wellness Coach profession, which provides care to young people through prevention and early intervention services.
  • September, 2023: CDPH awarded $16 million in grants to 34 CBOs and tribal organizations to implement local youth suicide prevention efforts as part of the Focused Youth Suicide Prevention Media and Outreach Campaign.
  • July, 2023: Launched Safe Spaces: Trauma-Informed Training for Education and Early Care Settings, a free, online training designed to help early care providers, TK-12 educators and other school personnel recognize and respond to trauma and stress in children.
  • July, 2023: DHCS awarded $30.5M for parent and caregiver support programs to scale evidence-based and/or community-defined evidence practices (EBPs/CDEPs) that improve youth behavioral health and access to critical interventions, including those focused on prevention, early intervention, and resiliency/recovery for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and the LGBTQIA+ community children and youth. Learn more here.
  • April, 2023: CA-OSG awarded a communications contract to launch a $24 million healing-centered campaign aimed at increasing awareness of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and providing support and healing strategies for individuals and communities across the state.
  • April, 2023: DHCS formed an expert working group to advise and inform the development of an e-consult platform that will offer providers access to remote and real-time consultation support with behavioral health clinical experts, as well as behavioral health resources, supports and trainings.
  • April, 2023: CA-OSG completed beta testing with 200+ practitioners from the field for its Safe Spaces: Foundations of Trauma-Informed Practice for Educational and Care Settings training.   
  • March, 2023: The CYBHI’s Equity Working Group adopted a Working Definition of Equity and Equity Framework—outlining what equity is  and key areas of focus needed to advance it—along with a toolkit to support implementation of the definition and framework into CYBH efforts.
  • March, 2023: DHCS awarded the primary vendor contract for the Behavioral Health Virtual Services Platform. 
  • March, 2023: HCAI awarded $117.7 million in grants to support recruitment and retention of behavioral health providers at 134 nonprofit Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) across California through the CBO Behavioral Health Workforce Grant program.
  • February, 2023: CDPH Selected a media vendor to develop and disseminate campaign messages and tools for the Targeted Youth Suicide Prevention Grants and Outreach Campaign.
  • February, 2023: CDPH selected 10 counties for the Youth Suicide Reporting and Crisis Response Pilots: Alameda, El Dorado, Humboldt, Kern, Los Angeles, Riverside, Sacramento, San Diego, San Joaquin, and Solano.
  • February, 2023: HCAI announced $59.4 million in grant awards to 23 organizations to support the development of seven new Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) or Master of Social Work (MSW) programs and to support the expansion of 16 MSW programs through the Social Work Education Capacity Expansion grant program.
  • February, 2023: DHCS released a request for applications for $100 million in grants to support evidence-based practices and community-defined evidence practices focused on trauma-informed programs and practices.
  • February, 2023: CalHHS released the Youth at the Center Report—developed through meetings with over 600 individuals facilitated by 26 partner organizations—which highlights what children, youth, families and community members across California want in a reimagined behavioral health ecosystem.
  • January, 2023: CalHHS released a progress report highlighting the first 18 months of the CYBHI and its efforts to transform the way California serves the mental, emotional and behavioral health needs of children, youth and families.
  • January, 2023: DHCS implemented dyadic care services—preventive behavioral health services that are provided to young people and their caregivers—as a covered benefit under Medi-Cal.
  • December, 2022: DHCS announced awards totaling $480.5 million for 54 projects in its fourth round of grants to help improve California’s behavioral health continuum serving children and youth through the Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program.
  • December, 2022: HCAI awarded and executed a $25 million contract to implement the Youth Mental Health Academy in order to support the early career development of 2,500 talented and culturally diverse California high school students with an interest in behavioral health careers. 
  • December, 2022: DHCS released a request for applications for $30 million in grants to support evidence-based practices and community-defined evidence practices focused on parent and caregiver support programs and practices.
  • December, 2022: HCAI launched the first Substance Use Disorder (SUD) workforce grant funding application and began developing SUD training for non-behavioral-health-professionals who work with children and youth. 
  • October, 2022: DHCS and DMHC established the Behavioral Health Fee-Schedule workgroup to inform the development and refinement of the program design. 
  • November, 2022: CalHHS selected its evaluation partner, Mathematica, who will use a systematic, programmatic approach to help the CYBHI and its partners reflect along the way, hone its approaches and continue to center equity, youth and families. 
  • October, 2022: HCAI awarded $37.6 million in funding for 15 organizations to support the training of 703 psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner students and 45 psychiatry residents/fellows through the Psychiatric Education Capacity Expansion program.
  • August-October, 2022: HCAI distributed $10.25 million for scholarship and loan repayment awards to increase the number of behavioral health professionals providing direct care in California’s health professional shortage areas. 
  • September, 2022: HCAI released the model for a new Wellness Coach role to support the behavioral health needs of California students and youth. 
  • September, 2022: HCAI awarded more than $23 million in CYBHI-funded Health Professions Pathway Program grants to support efforts such as career pipeline programs, summer internships for undergraduates and post undergraduate fellowships for students from underrepresented regions and backgrounds who are interested in behavioral health careers.
  • September, 2022: HCAI launched the first Community-based Organization (CBO) Behavioral Health Workforce grant funding application to support CBOs to recruit and retain behavioral health personnel, and provide loan repayments, scholarships, and stipends to CBO behavioral health staff.
  • August, 2022: To ensure that equity is embedded into the core of the CYBHI’s efforts — from processes, design, planning, implementation and overall approach of the Initiative to the activities, services, programs and policies of individual workstreams – CalHHS launched an Equity Working Group to help guide this critical work. 
  • July, 2022: HCAI awarded $11.5 million in Peer Personnel Training & Placements grants – $9.5 million of which was funded through CYBHI – to support the development of the peer workforce trained to address the needs of child and youth consumers (0-25 years of age). Twelve organizations were awarded an average of $1 million to recruit, train and place 2,515 peer support specialists across 37 counties. 
  • April, 2022: DHCS kicked off meetings for two Think Tanks, focused on the Behavioral Health Virtual Services Platform and Scaling Evidence-Based and Community-Defined Evidence Practices grants. 
  • November, 2022: DHCS executed a contract with Sacramento County Office of Education to implement the CalHOPE Student Support Program.  
  • January 2022: DHCS began the implementation of the Student Behavioral Health Incentive Program (SBHIP) to support partnerships between Medi-Cal managed care plans and schools in order to address barriers for Medi-Cal students by increasing access to preventative, early-intervention and behavioral health services from school-affiliated behavioral health providers.