The San Diego County Board of Supervisors has advanced a measure to establish a stand-alone behavioral health department intended to increase treatment capacity and improve coordinated care. Supervisors voted unanimously on consent during their Tuesday meeting to move the proposed ordinance forward as part of a first reading. The ordinance technically would replace an existing administrative code related to the health department’s structure.
Proposed Department Goals and Timeline
The new department will support workforce development alongside stronger data systems and accountability, according to Chair Terra Lawson-Remer and Vice Chair Monica Montgomery Steppe. The ordinance will be up for formal approval on April 21. Should supervisors approve it, the new department would take effect July 1, with the transition happening in phases. The chairs noted that the proposal “reflects years of rapid growth in behavioral health programs and the urgent need to build a system capable of meeting rising demand for mental health and substance use treatment.”
Background and Recent Investments
Behavioral Health Services currently falls under the Health and Human Services Agency, a structure “that was created nearly three decades ago, before major expansions in Medi-Cal coverage, behavioral health funding and treatment demand.” Over the past five years, the county has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on behavioral health care, opened crisis stabilization centers, expanded the number of mobile crisis response teams, and hired additional staff. The creation of a separate department aims to better accommodate this growth and improve service coordination.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.kpbs.org/news/2026/03/26/san-diego-county-supervisors-to-consider-separate-behavioral-health-department