County grants $1 million to CHAC to maintain mental health services

SAN JOSE – The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors has approved a $1 million grant to CHAC (Community Health Awareness Council) to help maintain mental health services in Santa Clara County. The funding will support counseling services, help establish a mental health clinic, and provide mental health resources to schools and communities.

“CHAC has built trust with the community and parents and delivered absolutely essential services. I’m pleased we’ve identified a way to partner with CHAC to maintain and even expand these much needed affordable mental health services,” said County Supervisor Joe Simitian who proposed the collaboration along with County Supervisor Otto Lee in May 2023.

“I think this is the first step toward a secure future for CHAC and the community members it serves,” said Simitian. Simitian said he sees the need for three essential steps:

• The initial $1 million contract grant to stabilize CHAC financially;
• Work to make CHAC eligible for MediCal funding, to ensure that CHAC is reimbursed for the services it provides; and,
• Consideration of governance issues and the joint powers authority (JPA) used by CHAC.

CHAC’s integrated care model works with school districts (Los Altos School District, Mountain View Los Altos High School District, Mountain View Whisman School District, and Sunnyvale School District) to support the psychological and emotional well-being of students in grades K-12. The County’s investment will enable CHAC to continue to provide free school-based programs for nearly 6,000 students in 35 K-12 schools. CHAC will also offer individual and group counseling, coaching, and social-emotional skills lessons to create a supportive classroom community.

“The biggest takeaway from the pandemic is that we need to bring services closer to our residents, so we must close gaps every chance we get,” said Lee. “CHAC continues to deliver critically needed services, especially in working with our youth. By making this investment in CHAC, we’re able to expand services to all ages, and most important across cultures and languages so the whole community has access to help.”

The CHAC Clinic in Mountain View also provides multilingual and multicultural counseling for children, teens, adults, couples, and families of all ages. Counseling is provided on a sliding scale of payment. Also, CHAC’s Family Resource Center collaborates with FIRST 5 Santa Clara County and other community partners to offer programs that help more than 8,000 parents and other caregivers understand the importance of physical and social-emotional development during the first years of life and early school years, provide enrichment activities for children, and supply essentials like diapers and baby formula. The resource centers are located in Cupertino, Mountain View, and Sunnyvale and a rotating site in West San Jose.

“Our community has seen firsthand the impact of CHAC's work, especially in these trying post-COVID times,” wrote Leslie Mains, Chief Engagement Officer of Cupertino Union School District, in a letter of support. “This collaboration is an important source of strength as we prepare for whatever mental health and societal challenges come next.”

CHAC is also a major source of training for the next generation of mental health professionals, including graduate and doctoral students in a program accredited by the American Psychological Association. While many organizations in Santa Clara County provide internships placements for graduate students, CHAC has one of the largest programs and last year provided training for 84 future mental health practitioners. CHAC is one of two American Psychological Association accredited community-based organizations providing internship placements for doctoral students.

“For decades, CHAC has performed such services for schools and cities at prices no other agency can match,” wrote Phil Faillace, Ph.D., President of Mountain View Los Altos High School District Board, in a letter of support shared with the Board in May 2023. “CHAC’s unique operational model combines the provision of those services with the closely supervised training of graduate students accumulating the many hours of practical experience required to be a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (“LMFT”) or to earn a doctorate in related behavioral sciences. That combination has made CHAC’s services exceptionally effective as well as cost effective.  It has also produced a steady stream of many new LMFTs to serve county residents.”

Fifty years ago, CHAC was founded by concerned parents and community leaders. A JPA agreement between local cities (the town of Los Altos Hills and the cities of Los Altos and Mountain View) and school districts (Los Altos School District, Mountain View Los Altos High School District, and Mountain View Whisman School District) partially fund the program.

“Times change; funding systems change; the regulatory environment changes. I applaud CHAC for recognizing that their model and structure needs to evolve in order to keep serving County residents,” said Simitian.