Many Californians experience serious and impairing mental health issues, but fewer receive the care that they need. In light of this, the California Mental Health Service Authority (CalMHSA), a joint power authority of counties working together on statewide mental health projects, administers prevention and early intervention (PEI) campaigns that seek to address mental health stigma and encourage people to get mental health support. This report describes surveys of a representative sample of California adults, conducted at two time points, to understand (1) the reach and impact of CalMHSA's mental health PEI campaigns and (2) how Californians are faring with respect to their mental health attitudes, knowledge, and use of mental health resources.

In 2004, California voters passed the Mental Health Services Act, which was intended to transform California's community mental health system from a crisis-driven system to one that included a focus on prevention and wellness. The vision was that prevention and early intervention (PEI) services comprised the first step in a continuum of services designed to identify early symptoms and prevent mental illness from becoming severe and disabling. Twenty percent of the act's funding was dedicated to PEI services. The act identified seven negative outcomes that PEI programs were intended to reduce: suicide, mental health-related incarcerations, school failure, unemployment, prolonged suffering, homelessness, and removal of children from the home. The Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission (MHSOAC) coordinated with the California Mental Health Services Authority (CalMHSA), an independent administrative and fiscal intergovernmental agency, to seek development of a statewide framework for evaluating and monitoring the short- and long-term impact of PEI funding on the population. CalMHSA selected the RAND Corporation to develop a framework for the statewide evaluation. This report describes the approach, the data sources, and the frameworks developed: an overall approach framework and outcome-specific frameworks.

The California Mental Health Services Authority (CalMHSA) has implemented an ambitious, first-of-its-kind set of statewide prevention and early intervention (PEI) initiatives with the broad goals of reducing mental illness stigma and discrimination, preventing suicide, and improving student mental health. CalMHSA selected the RAND Corporation to conduct an independent evaluation of the PEI initiatives. This brief reviews RAND's key evaluation findings. Overall, results show that many program components were successfully implemented and achieved their intended impacts in the short term. Continued dissemination and support of effective programs will be required to sustain short-term gains and to observe longer-term impacts on the mental health, quality of life, and productivity of Californians.

In 2004, California voters passed the Mental Health Services Act, which was intended to transform California0́9s community mental health system from a crisis-driven system to one that included a focus on prevention and wellness. The vision was that prevention and early intervention (PEI) services comprised the first step in a continuum of services designed to identify early symptoms and prevent mental illness from becoming severe and disabling. Twenty percent of the act0́9s funding was dedicated to PEI services. The act identified seven negative outcomes that PEI programs were intended to reduce: suicide, mental health-related incarcerations, school failure, unemployment, prolonged suffering, homelessness, and removal of children from the home. The Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission (MHSOAC) coordinated with the California Mental Health Services Authority (CalMHSA), an independent administrative and fiscal intergovernmental agency, to seek development of a statewide framework for evaluating and monitoring the short- and long-term impact of PEI funding on the population. CalMHSA selected the RAND Corporation to develop a framework for the statewide evaluation. This report describes the approach, the data sources, and the frameworks developed: an overall approach framework and outcome-specific frameworks.

In 2004, California voters passed the Mental Health Services Act, which was intended to transform California0́9s community mental health system from a crisis-driven system to one that included a focus on prevention and wellness. The vision was that prevention and early intervention (PEI) services comprised the first step in a continuum of services designed to identify early symptoms and prevent mental illness from becoming severe and disabling. Twenty percent of the act0́9s funding was dedicated to PEI services. The act identified seven negative outcomes that PEI programs were intended to reduce: suicide, mental health-related incarcerations, school failure, unemployment, prolonged suffering, homelessness, and removal of children from the home. The Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission (MHSOAC) coordinated with the California Mental Health Services Authority (CalMHSA), an independent administrative and fiscal intergovernmental agency, to seek development of a statewide framework for evaluating and monitoring the short- and long-term impact of PEI funding on the population. CalMHSA selected the RAND Corporation to develop a framework for the statewide evaluation. This report describes the approach, the data sources, and the frameworks developed: an overall approach framework and outcome-specific frameworks.