The Honorable Robert Rivas The Honorable Monique
Limón
Speaker of the Assembly Senate President pro Tempore
1021 O Street, Suite 8330 1021 O Street, Suite 8518
Sacramento, CA 95814 Sacramento, CA 95814
July ##, 2026
RE: Sustaining Behavioral Health Prevention and Early Intervention in the Final 2026– 27 State Budget
Dear Speaker Rivas and Senate President pro Tempore Limón:
We write to urge that the final 2026–27 state budget agreement make a deliberate investment in behavioral health prevention — the part of California's system that Proposition 1 has left most exposed. Proposition 1 redirected nearly a third of county behavioral health funding to housing and eliminated the dedicated prevention allocation the state had relied on for two decades, widening the gap in the community-based programs that reach Californians before a challenge becomes a crisis. Closing that gap is among the highest-value investments the Legislature can make in this budget. The need is also evolving, as technology advances and the risks of social media intensify, parents and young people need accessible, real-time avenues to seek situational care before distress becomes crisis.
The mechanics are straightforward. The Mental Health Services Act — the voter-approved millionaire's tax that funds close to a third of county behavioral health services — historically dedicated roughly 20 percent of its revenue to prevention and early intervention. Proposition 1 restructured that law into the Behavioral Health Services Act and now requires counties to spend 30 percent of those funds on housing interventions, replacing the dedicated prevention allocation with a smaller, contested pool in which prevention competes against workforce, innovation, and facilities. It also shifts roughly $140 million a year from counties to the state. The result is less money and less local discretion for prevention, and that pressure intensifies as the new requirements take hold beginning in July 2026.
The effect of the shift is already visible. As counties absorb the new requirements, communitybased prevention programs are being cut. San Diego County alone has canceled 21 prevention contracts, including a youth suicide-prevention initiative for middle and high school students and a grief-support program for families of violence victims. These are not redundant services. They are the front edge of the system — the point at which a parent in crisis or a struggling teenager can reach support before an emergency occurs.
When prevention disappears, the need does not. It migrates to the most expensive parts of the system: emergency departments, the 988 crisis line, county crisis teams, and child welfare.
Defunding prevention does not save money — it moves the cost downstream and multiplies it.
The payoff of getting prevention right is just as concrete: the California Parent & Youth Helpline has reduced child abuse and neglect by 63 percent among the families in its support groups and reaches roughly 25,000 families a year before their crises ever reach an emergency room.
Three pillars of that front-line system are unfunded in the budget as it currently stands — the Parent & Youth Helpline, supplemental funding for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, and the Peer-Run Warm Line/CalHOPE — spanning the continuum from everyday prevention to acute crisis response.
The Legislature should protect the following critical mental health programs in the final budget agreement:
1. Parent & Youth Helpline — $15 Million
Operated by Parents Anonymous, in partnership with the California Department of Social Services, the California Parent & Youth Helpline is the state's behavioral health front door for families. Since its 2020 launch, it has responded to more than 125,700 calls, texts, and chats, made over 85,000 referrals, and delivered nearly 1.5 million instances of support through its weekly groups. It has reached families in all 58 counties in English, Spanish, and more than 230 additional languages and delivers service regardless of immigration status.
Roughly 25,000 parents, children, and youth rely on it each year for immediate help with anxiety, depression, family conflict, substance use, and suicidal ideation — available the moment they reach out, not weeks later after an appointment or insurance authorization.
Increasingly, the everyday problems families bring to the Helpline include the digital pressures that can escalate into crisis: in a recent review of Helpline calls, parents and young people described how online searches that spiraled into worst-case fears, social media feeds that deepened anxiety and self-doubt, and exposure to disturbing online content were worsening their mental health — emerging stressors a trusted, real-time line is positioned to catch early.
Its value is clearest in a crisis. The Helpline saw a surge in calls during and after the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, and a second surge during the ICE raids that followed — moments when thousands of families, many in immigrant and mixed-status households, had nowhere else to turn for trauma-informed, multilingual support. Nearly 10,000 Latino parents, children, and youth would lose access to that lifeline if funding lapses. For families facing language barriers, stigma, or scarce local providers, the Helpline is often the only entry point into the mental health system — and it answers in real time, stabilizing emergencies before they escalate into emergency-room visits, child-welfare involvement, or tragedy.
And it works. The Helpline is recognized by the federal Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse; Parents Anonymous support groups have been shown to reduce child abuse and neglect by 63 percent; and peer-reviewed research published in the Journal of Technology in Human Services found statistically significant improvement in parents' emotional state during a single call, with 85 percent of callers reporting a more positive, solution-focused outlook. Losing this funding would dismantle one of California's most effective and lowest-cost family prevention infrastructures at the precise moment demand is rising.
2. 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — Supplemental Funding $37 Million With the passage of AB 988 (The Miles Hall Lifeline and Suicide Prevention Act) and creation of the 988 State Suicide and Behavioral Health Crisis Services Fund (988 Fund), California explicitly prioritized ensuring crisis centers are fully funded at a time when the easy to remember and easy to access three-digit 9-8-8 number grows in our collective consciousness. Based on current trends and forecasts, 988 California anticipates exponential growth and a total annual funding need of $105 million to answer all calls, texts, and chats in California.
Currently, only 35% of 988's necessary funding was allocated in the budget with significant resources from the 988 Fund diverted elsewhere, creating a significant response gap in California. Failing to fully fund crisis centers has direct, distressing implications, including vast out-of-state call routing which slows lifesaving interventions and degrades the culturally responsive strategies embraced by California based crisis centers. As a state, we must set a standard that when a Californian reaches out to 988, they are met with a swift, compassionate response from a counselor at a California 988 center.
3. California Peer-Run Warm Line / CalHOPE — $19.5 Million The California Peer-Run Warm Line, operating since 2014 and now also delivering CalHOPE services, offers free, pre-crisis emotional support by phone, text, and chat, staffed by Medi-Cal-certified peer counselors and serving all 58 counties, with 36 percent of callers connecting in Spanish. Funding reductions have sharply cut its capacity — roughly three of four callers can no longer get through — pushing Californians who once received early support toward emergency departments and 988 instead. At about $60 per contact versus more than $1,100 for an emergency-room visit, restoring it is among the most cost-effective prevention investments available, and a $19.5 million investment would return the service toward round-the-clock capacity.
4. 211 California — $20 Million
California's behavioral health safety net depends on a coordinated ecosystem of support, which is inclusive of 211. Currently, almost half of 211’s network is at risk of going dark because of local’s being forced to defund 211 services while responding to HR 1 implementation pressures. While 988 provides crisis intervention for individuals experiencing mental health emergencies and 911 responds when immediate public safety intervention is needed, 211 serves as the front door to care, connecting Californians to mental health services, substance use treatment, housing assistance, food support, domestic violence resources, and other community-based services that help prevent crises from escalating.
Every year, 211 assists more than 1.8 million Californians, many of whom are navigating behavioral health challenges and need help accessing ongoing care and stabilization services. When these needs go unmet, individuals are more likely to experience worsening crises that ultimately place greater demand on 988, emergency departments, and first responders. As the state continues to strengthen its behavioral health continuum, California should invest in keeping 211 from going dark so we preserve this critical third leg of the stool and ensure Californians can access help before a challenge becomes a crisis.
California spent years building a prevention-first behavioral health system. Proposition 1's restructuring, however well intentioned, is now pulling funding away from the community-based programs that make prevention real — and the 2026–27 budget is the Legislature's opportunity to keep these proven programs from going dark.
Prevention is the least expensive and most humane point at which the state can intervene.
Sustaining these lifelines protects Californians in crisis, reduces strain on emergency rooms and crisis systems, and honors the prevention-first commitment voters and this Legislature have made.
Thank you for your leadership and consideration. If you have any questions, please contact my Chief of Staff, Tomasa Dueñas, at 916-319-2028 or [email protected].
Sincerely,
GAIL PELLERIN
Assemblymember, District 28
Chair, Assembly Select Committee on California’s Mental Health Crisis cc: Christian Griffith, Chef Consultant, Assembly Budget Committee Elisa Wynne, Staff Director, Senate Budget Committee