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Mental Health Reform
In March 2019, Mental Health Reform in San Francisco launched with the mayoral appointment of Dr. Anton Nigusse Bland as director. Through this appointment, Mayor London N. Breed sought to identify solutions for behavioral health challenges faced by the City, especially those linked to increasing homelessness. With this charge, the Director of Mental Health Reform worked within the San Francisco Department of Public Health and with the broader behavioral health community to define the vision, goals, and target population for the reform effort. Building on this initial charter and framework, the Mental Health Reform team began to make recommendations in September 2019 and to take actions to launch transformative reform.
This status report provides an overview of the development and implementation of Mental Health Reform in San Francisco in its first year, detailing the initiation of the work, the identification of a target population, the engagement of the community, and recommendations for transforming the behavioral health system. Further, the report describes the complementary City initiative, Mental Health SF, legislation that aims to improve behavioral health services for people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco. Finally, the director outlines goals for the second year of Mental Health Reform.