Welcome to the series of Equity in Telehealth Vignettes brought to you by the Delta Center California State Roundtable. This series of 7 vignettes features individuals served by California health centers and community-based behavioral health providers that participated as local grantee teams in the Delta Center California Learning Lab. Each vignette highlights an individual's story and an opportunity to advance equity in telehealth.
On Wednesday, February 22nd, 2023 presenters from The Fenway Institute, California Department of Health Care Services, Marin County Behavioral Health & Recovery Services, Solano County Behavioral Health, and The Los Angeles LGBT Center outlined the landscape of SOGI and REAL data collection in behavioral health. This webinar was hosted by the California Institute for Behavioral Health Solutions (CIBHS), and co-sponsored by the California Primary Care Association (CPCA) and the County Behavioral Health Directors Association of California (CBHDA) as a part of Delta Center California.
On September 28th and 29th, 2022, the third and final Delta Center California Convening presented an opportunity for the Learning Lab Teams and State Roundtable to come together and elevate and celebrate the work they have done over the last two years. The first day was geared towards generating opportunities and “calls to action” for decision makers, and collaborative curation of stories from the work of Delta Center CA participants that illustrate successes or barriers that warrant change. On the second day, external guests and decision makers were invited to attend participant presentations and to engage in dialogue.
Members of Delta California's State Policy and Partnership Roundtable applaud the passing of AB 32, which will permit a health care provider, a federally qualified health center, or a rural health clinic to establish a new patient using an audio-only synchronous modality when the visit is related to sensitive services, if a patient requests it, or if the patient doesn’t have access to video services. The State Roundtable commends Assemblymembers Aguiar-Curry and Rivas as well as Governor Newsom for taking action to maintain access to telehealth services for Medi-Cal enrollees.
Members of Delta California's State Policy and Partnership Roundtable applaud the Governor's signing of AB 1394, which would would require a general acute care hospital to establish and adopt written policies and procedures to screen patients who are 12 years of age and older for purposes of detecting a risk for suicidal ideation and behavior. The State Roundtable is proud to support this promising strategy for addressing the mental health crisis.
Delta Center California is pleased to release this joint statement on the proposed 2022-2023 California Budget, developed and signed onto by the members of the Delta Center California State Policy and Partnership Roundtable. In the statement, the health care, primary care, and behavioral health organizations that comprise the State Roundtable state their support for Governor Newsom’s commitment to California’s health workforce, and the potential for the investments to generate a more robust and better supported workforce. We are proud to support these organizations in coming together to use their collective voice to advance health and equity in the state.
On February 1st-3rd, 2022, 50 Delta Center CA participants came together in community to discuss self and collective care, gain inspiration from each other and leaders in their field, and work towards system transformation. Over the first two days, participants attended three out of eight concurrent sessions of their choosing under the themes of Policy and Systems, Workforce, and Integration Implementation. Between these sessions, participants discussed and provided feedback on the State Roundtable’s action plans, as well as engaging in relationship building and unstructured dialogue. On the third day of the convening, the teams and State Roundtable each met individually to advance their project goals.
In November 2021, Delta Center CA held a panel discussion with Alfonso Apu, Director of Behavioral Health at Community Medical Centers in San Joaquin County, Eleanor Castillo-Sumi, VP, Research & Program Development at Uplift Family Services in Santa Clara County and Learning Lab Team member, and Nira Singh, Director of Behavioral Health at Asian Americans for Community Involvement (AACI) in Santa Clara County. During this event, panelists discussed workforce themes such as: hiring practices and culture change; strategies for retaining and promoting Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in leadership positions; supporting staff well-being; understanding and dismantling power dynamics; and discussing the challenges with an integrated and hybrid workforce. Here are some of the main takeaways from this thought-provoking and informative discussion.
In March 2020, so many aspects of our work and lives changed overnight. At Delta Center California, we learned to be agile in fostering meaningful policy and practice transformation work in a new online era. Over the past two years, Delta Center CA has held monthly policy and collective action meetings, bi-monthly virtual learning events, and two convenings, all on Zoom. We strive to be intentional in the ways we engage our participants to maximize relationship building, learning, and collaboration. Here are some tips for virtual collaboration and engagement that we have learned along the way.
Two of the key tenets of Delta Center California are centering racial equity and engaging in co-design with our partners across the state. Three months into the initiative, the co-design process guided us to reflect on whether we were doing all we could to advance racial equity, and ultimately led to the restructuring of a major component of the work: the Learning Lab.
