Catholic Charities has provided residential and mental health treatment services to Shasta County youth over the past 6 years. Currently, there is one youth placed at Catholic Charities. This facility offers a variety of mental health treatment services in coordination with residential program services to Shasta County youth who are Medi-Cal beneficiaries. The proposed agreement will allow continued services for the youth currently receiving services, and for additional Shasta County youth and their families considered appropriate for these services in the future.
Youth who are placed in out-of-home care by either the Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) or the Probation Department, or children who are placed voluntarily by their parents through the Adoption Assistance Program, become eligible for Medi-Cal. Medically necessary Medi-Cal mental health services for eligible children are considered an entitlement. As part of its Managed Care Plan responsibility for specialty mental health services, the HHSA is responsible for determining medical necessity, authorizing, and paying for these services.
The services provided by Catholic Charities include mental health services designed to reduce serious behaviors and symptoms resulting from a mental illness that can require acute psychiatric hospitalization, and the need for a highly structured and supervised placement. The goal of placement in this facility is to improve the youth’s functioning such that the youth can move to a resource home or relative care when appropriate. Progress in treatment for each individual is evaluated through quarterly reports on the frequency of behaviors that result in the need for group home level of care as well as tracking of progress toward treatment goals.
This agreement is retroactive due to the new statewide Continuum of Care Reform and Assembly Bill 403 which impacts regulations for group homes that are converting to Short Term Residential Therapeutic Programs (STRTP).