OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR
Office of Health Equity Dashboard (Data Metrics) –
The Office of Health Equity was developed in the Fall of 2020, in response to a critical need for the department to remain forever grounded in the important work and focus of its most important resource: individuals and family that form our shared community.
Our division is comprised of several critical programs and areas across our department. These long-standing programs were combined into a single division, and includes: Ethnic Services; Peer Support Services; and Family Empowerment Services. This office also oversees departmental operations related to Patients’ Rights Advocacy in order to ensure that critical beneficiary needs are represented and are supported through policy, practice, and/or through the care delivery system.
We value collaborative partnerships with peers, families, service providers, agencies and communities, where every door is the right door for welcoming people with complex needs and assisting them along their journey towards wellness, resilience, and recovery.
We value, support, and encourage individuals and their families to exercise their authority to make decisions, choose form a range of available options, and to develop their full capacity to think, speak, and act effectively in their own interest and on behalf of others they represent.
We honor the voices, strengths, leadership, practices, language and life experience of ethnically and culturally diverse individuals and their families across the lifespan. We value operationalizing these experiences in our service settings, collaborative treatment planning, and the strategies we use to engage our communities.
History of Cultural Competency/Ethnic Services Manager:
Description of Services: Office of Ethnic Services (OES) advances health equity by creating racially, linguistically, and ethnically equitable access to Alameda County Behavioral Health (ACBH) services.
OES has an ongoing commitment to the practice of cultural humility which embodies self-reflection and self-examination, as well as an understanding of the power dynamics between the provider and consumer, and ACBH and the community.
OES is in charge of the facilitation of:
Quick links
The Office of Peer Support Services is committed to transforming the behavioral health system by engaging, promoting, supporting and empowering peers receiving services, and peer-run organizations and programs.
The Office of Peer Support Services is working to collaborate with the community to support Alameda County in becoming a leader in certifying Peer Support Specialists; and ensuring that peer support services and trainings are available and accessible to everyone with mental health and co-occurring needs on their wellness and recovery journey.
Peers Organizing Community Change (POCC)
The POCC is a program of the Alameda County Behavioral Health Office of Peer Support Services. The mission of the POCC is to improve the quality of life for Alameda County residents who have mental health or mental health and substance use issues, in whatever settings they find themselves, and to provide the consumer perspective in transforming Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services into a recovery vision that is consumer-driven, culturally responsive, and holistic in its services and supports. The POCC provides an empowered and informed voice: of, by, and for consumers in the behavioral health care system, related systems, and in the community.
The Office of Family Empowerment (OFE) was developed to provide technical assistance and family perspectives to Alameda County Behavioral Health, including: County-run and Community Based Organizations and treatment facilities.
OFE’s vision is: All Family Members in relationship with ACBH, can tap into their inherent worthiness, dignity and humanity because race, affiliation, and diverse life experiences should not determine social, emotional, mental health and legal outcomes.
OFFICE OF FAMILY EMPOWERMENT FAMILY MEMBER DEFINITION
A Family Member is an individual who provides:
on behalf of a loved one with social/emotional or mental health concerns, including substance use disorder.
Family members may be:
Or anyone else whom the Peer/Consumer/Client/Youth defines as “their family members.”
In collaboration with the ACBH System of Care Directors, OFE’s charge is to build systems of support for family members that values the diverse cultural, ethnic, linguistic and socio-economic communities in Alameda County, including the myriad of changing needs family members may experience across the life-span of their loved-ones, from early childhood through elder adulthood.
The OFE’s goals will be met through voicing family perspectives to ACBH’s Administration regarding policy and programmatic issues, recruitment and retention of family members in workgroups and planning councils, providing technical assistance to new and emerging family groups, working closely with existing family groups, and facilitating linkages throughout the County to extend a network of information, education and support for family members.
OFE provides technical assistance, coaching, Co-Learning projects, Parent Café’s, Family Partner/Advocate training and support, Parent’s Tools to Thrive and other Family Centered Curriculum and activities to develop and increase Family Member Leadership in Alameda County.
Beyond the Behavioral Health Care System, the OFE collaborates with schools, child-welfare, faith-based organizations, primary health care providers, juvenile and criminal justice, and the general public about mental health and/or substance use issues and their impact on individuals, families and communities.
RESOURCES:
Family Members Needing Individual Assistance Navigating ACBH and Advocating for their loved-ones, may contact the Family Education and Resource Center (FERC) at ferc.org or their warmline at 888-896-3372. FERC services are Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) funded and completely free of charge.
Family Members Needing Assistance Hospitalizing a Loved One in Crisis, click the link for information about AB1421 – Historical Information for 5150, and AB1194 changes to 5150 process.
NAMI East Bay: namieastbay.org
NAMI Alameda County: nami-alamedacounty.org
NAMI Tri-Valley: nami-trivalley.org
NAMI Alameda County South: nami-alamedacounty.org
NAMI Chinese: namica.org
National Council for Aging Care’s Guide on Elder Abuse
Please see this Online Guide for resources and assistance. Feel Free to share with consumers and fellow providers.
Californians with mental illnesses who are receiving treatment in mental health facilities, including those persons subject to involuntary commitment, are guaranteed numerous rights under Welfare and Institutions code (W&I Code), Section 5325, including the right to be free from abuse and neglect, the right to privacy, dignity, and humane care, and the right to basic procedural protections in the commitment process. In Alameda County, ACBH contracts with the Mental Health Association of Alameda County (MHAAC) to support and advocate on the behalf of clients and patients and their treatment.
Patients' Rights Advocates of Alameda County
The Patients' Rights Advocates of Alameda County is a program of the Mental Health Association of Alameda County. The program employees a team of 8 staff members to perform the duties required of County Patients’ Rights Advocates (aka Title 9 Advocates). The program responds to questions and complaints from consumers being treated in psychiatric hospitals/facilities and from consumers who are residents of long term facilities or of adult residential facilities, who feel one or more of their rights have been denied.
Anyone with a question or concern about treatment of a client receiving mental health services in Alameda County is welcome to call.
The toll-free telephone # in Alameda County is 1 (800) 734-2504; outside the county, dial 1 (510) 835-2505.
Listed below are the services that the Patients’ Rights Advocates of Alameda County perform for clients. Some of the services provided to consumers also serve to support family members and treatment providers.
When the Patients’ Rights Advocate represents a client in one of these hearings, that advocate works on behalf of the consumer and presents legal arguments to support the position of their client. Advocates are not members of any treatment team and represent the expressed interest of their clients.
PHONE
WEBSITE
Click on Patients’ Rights Advocates