California State University of Sacramento Lived Experience Project

In 2019, the Council on Criminal Justice and Behavioral Health (CCJBH) contracted with the California State University, Sacramento (CSUS), to determine how best to engage individuals with lived experience (LE) in the behavioral health and criminal justice systems. The CSUS LE project design is a multi-phased approach and an iterative process upon which CCJBH continues to build. Through these efforts, CCJBH and CSUS collaborated to produce two reports: Successful Approaches to Employing Individuals with Lived Experience in the Criminal Justice and Behavioral Health Fields and  Solutions to Hiring Barriers for Individuals with Lived Experience to Work in the Criminal Justice and Behavioral Health Fields. As part of final phase of the project, CCJBH, in collaboration with CSUS, focused their efforts in understanding potential barriers to accessing Medi-Cal services among the behavioral health (BH) and justice involved (JI) population.

As recent as 2021, and consistent with previous CCJBH findings, CCJBH reported through its Medi-Cal Utilization Project (MCUP) that individuals transitioning from incarceration (transitioning citizens) to the community who have identified mental health and/or substance use disorder(s) underutilize Medi-Cal behavioral health services within one year upon release. In an effort to better understand the reasons behind this underutilization, CCJBH worked with CSUS to host a series of listening sessions in 2023 with members of the broad BH/JI population and providers who serve the BH/JI population.

More than eight of every ten Medi-Cal enrolled individuals released from incarceration in California have addiction/substance use or mental health needs – yet far fewer receive Medi-Cal services for those needs. To understand the reason behind these patterns and advocate for changes to better serve the behavioral health and justice involved (BH/JI) population, California State University at Sacramento (CSUS) is supporting CCJBH by facilitating a series of listening sessions to hear from individuals with behavioral health conditions who are justice involved, as well as providers who serve the BH/JI population. CSUS, in collaboration with local community-based partners, will hosted regional in-person listening sessions from February to April 2023, with the goal of hearing from a range of perspectives on this topic. The sessions gathered feedback on why BH/JI population does or does not use behavioral health services, particularly Medi-Cal services. These efforts resulted in the reportBarriers to Improve Utilization of Medi-Cal Services Among Individuals Transitioning: A Summary of Beneficiary and Provider Listening Sessions.