California Women’s
Mental Health Policy
Council
Our History and
Accomplishments
In The Beginning
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Gender Issues and Mental Health?
SAMHSA Conference September 1997
California Wakes Up
California Contingent Talks
Wheels Start Turning
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San Mateo County to Host Conference
Gender Matters December 1998
December 1999 1st meeting of WMHPC
San Mateo County and CIMH support
Funding
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DMH funding for statewide adolescent
conference and then next year for conferences
on trauma
3 yr. core support grant from The California
Wellness Foundation - $200,000
Mission
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The California Women’s Mental Health
Policy Council’s (WMHPC) mission is to
ensure effective, gender-specific culturally
appropriate mental health services for
women and girls.
Goals
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An integrated system of care responsive to the full
diversity of women throughout their life-span.
Mental health services for women and girls based on
the principles of relational psychology and which
acknowledge the important roles family and community
play in women’s lives.
Mental health services which support the multiple
societal roles of women.
A mental health system without financial and other
institutional barriers to services for women.
Goals
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An integrated, multi-disciplinary approach to providing
services to women with complex social, mental, and
physical health problems.
Effective advocacy and consumer self-determination to
promote systems change.
Gender-specific education, training, and research to
improve mental health services for women and girls.
To be aware and educate our membership and others
about broad issues impacting women’s mental health.
WMHPC Domains
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Training
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Research
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Advocacy
Training
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2 Film events
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Statewide conference on adolescent girls
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“Challenging the Mental Health System: Adolescent Girls’
Resilience and Risk”
4 Regional trainings on trauma and women
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“Women and Mental Illness”, Dan Weisburd
“Coming of Age…at high risk”, Dan Weisburd
“Building Gender Sensitive Services: Women and Trauma”
Any Door is the Right Door Regional Trainings
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Fall 2005 – Spring 2006
Research
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“Gender Matters in Mental Health: An Initial
Look at Gender-based Data” February 2004
“A Roadmap To Mental Health Services for
Transition Age Young Women: A Research
Review” (in press, 4/05)
Advocacy
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AB 2034
Correspondence
Position papers
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Medi-cal, Calworks, Family centered care, Integrated
services, Housing, Realignment
President’s Freedom Commission
Legislative briefing, January 2004
Parenting Question in CSI
Advocacy
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MHSA
Comments on draft Vision Statement
 Comments on draft Community Services and
Support Plan Requirements
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Curriculum Development
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“Any Door is The Right Door: Coordinating
Services for Domestic Violence, Mental Health
and Substance Abuse Services”
Basic Mental Health 101 Home Study Course
Basic Alcohol and Other Drug 101 Home Study
Course
Current Projects
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Building Service Capacity: DV, MH, AOD
“A Roadmap to Mental Health Services for Transition
Age Young Women: A Research Review” (in press,
publication date April 2005)
Building Collaborations for Women’s Mental
Health Advocacy:
Developing Local Mental Health Champions
 Women’s Mental Health Bulletins
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Building Service Capacity:
DV/MH/AOD
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CalWorks research - collaborative formed
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California Department of Mental Health
CIMH
WMHPC
Statewide California Coalition for Battered Women
California Alliance Against Domestic Violence
PROTOTYPES
San Mateo County
Peace and Joy Caring Center
San Joaquin County Mental Health Services
San Mateo County Alcohol and Drug Programs
California Department of Health Services Injury Prevention and
Control
California Department of Health Services, Battered Women’s Services
Human Response Network
DMH Jump Starts Project
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DMH funding to develop training curricula and
policy/administrative checklist. Materials to be
used to cross train mental health, substance
abuse providers, and domestic violence
providers on the nexus between clients with cooccurring disorders and domestic violence.
Cross-Training Materials
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Any Door is the Right Door Curriculum
Policy Checklist (not completed)
Home Study Courses
 Mental Health 101
 Alcohol and Other Drugs 101
 Domestic Violence 101 (not completed)
Data Report
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Key finding: Females under age 40 are less likely
than males to receive mental health services.
This finding is consistent for public mental
health systems across the board, in Medi-Cal,
the Client and Services Information System
(CSI), the Interagency-Enrollee Based Children’s
System of Care, and the Chapter 26.5 Special
Education mandate.
Data Report Recommendations
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DMH, initiate a program with counties and advocacy groups to
increase awareness of the nature and prevalence of girls’ and
women’s mental health issues and examine ways to increase
identification, referrals, and services for females.
The DMH Quality Improvement Council undertake a study to
examine the access discrepancies between females and males.
DMH use gender as a routine variable in all data that the
Department publishes.
DMH have gender as a routine variable in the data obtained
through the current data matching project with CDSS.
Data Report Recommendations
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DMH pursue or create opportunities for other
integrated data projects similar to the CDSS project.
At the next revision of CSI or as soon as it is practical,
DMH add a data element to determine how many
clients are raising children or caring for partners or
parents.
DMH actively participate in population-based women’s
health studies such as the California Health
Information Survey and the Women’s Health Survey.
The WMHPC pursue funding to analyze service and
outcome data by gender and race/ethnicity.
Data Report Recommendations
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The WMHPC pursue investigation of what other
studies have been done regarding the state of mental
health issues for California Latinas.
WMHPC pursue collaborative relationship with
Latino/a health organizations to embark on a study of
mental health issues for Latinas in California..
The WMHPC work collaboratively to prioritize and
implement the recommendations in the ethnic specific
studies cited in this report.
Transition Age Youth Report
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To identify mental health practices supported by
scientific evidence which specifically target
young women.
Provide analysis of which interventions most
likely to enhance young women’s successful
transition to adulthood.
To improve outcomes for transition age young
women in the mental health system.
Policy/Advocacy
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Legislative briefings
Bill tracking and budget analysis,
correspondence
Advocacy group in Sacramento, put a real face
on advocacy
Use existing offices including federal level
Developing Local Women’s Mental Health
Champions