San Diego County supervisors have signed off on a major overhaul of how the region will spend its behavioral health dollars, approving the first Behavioral Health Services Act Integrated Plan yesterday. The three-year blueprint lays out how the county will steer funding for mental health care, substance use treatment and housing for residents with serious behavioral health needs. The plan sets priorities and budgets for fiscal years 2026-2029 and is scheduled to take effect this summer.
The BHSA replaced the state's old Mental Health Services Act after voters passed Proposition 1 in March 2024, and it tells counties to redo how they fund and track behavioral health services. As outlined by the California Department of Health Care Services, BHSA leans heavily on housing interventions, tighter oversight and a bigger role for substance-use treatment alongside mental health care.
What the plan funds
County board documents describe the Integrated Plan as channeling both new and existing behavioral health funding into housing interventions, full-service partnerships and expanded treatment and support for people with the most significant needs. The Board letter asked supervisors to approve the plan and authorize the Behavioral Health Services director to submit it to state regulators, reflecting BHSA-driven shifts in priorities.
The county confirmed the vote in a short post on X, calling the Integrated Plan “a three-year roadmap” that lays out funding priorities and next steps ahead of BHSA's July 1 implementation, according to San Diego County on the platform.
County Supervisors today approved the region’s first Behavioral Health Services Act (BHSA) Integrated Plan, a three-year roadmap for how the County will use funding to support mental health care, substance use treatment and housing for people with serious behavioral health needs.…
— SanDiegoCounty (@SanDiegoCounty) June 10, 2026
Community input and timeline
The draft Integrated Plan was posted for a 30-day public review this spring and summarizes months of outreach with providers, advocacy groups and residents before it was finalized for the board. San Diego's plan sets July 1 as the implementation date and notes that final public comments were vetted by advisory boards before submission. Those details appear in San Diego County's Integrated Plan and on the county's engagement site, Engage San Diego County.
Local context
The approval comes as the county moves to rework its behavioral health bureaucracy, including steps to carve Behavioral Health Services into a standalone department intended to sharpen oversight and align with new state funding rules. That effort was laid out in a March report on the board's fast-track breakup, which argued that a separate department could help San Diego access and manage BHSA dollars more effectively.
What to watch
In the coming weeks, the county must finalize certifications and submit the Integrated Plan to state regulators so local providers can transition when BHSA takes effect on July 1. Guidance from the California Department of Health Care Services requires counties to file their finalized BHSA Integrated Plans by June 30, and the county's next steps will determine how quickly services and housing interventions roll out.
