Veteran California public servant Will Lightbourne has stepped in as interim govt director of the state’s psychological well being fee after its earlier govt director resigned following battle of curiosity allegations.
Lightbourne served as head of the state’s Department of Social Services for seven years earlier than retiring in 2018 and had already returned to service as soon as, as interim head of the Department of Health Care Services on the peak of the covid-19 pandemic. On Nov. 4, he was tapped to steer the state’s Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission after govt director Toby Ewing introduced he would step down.
Documents obtained by KFF Health News confirmed that Ewing took a visit to the U.Ok. funded by Kooth, a London-based firm that the state contracted to construct a youth psychological well being app. At the identical time, he was working to guard Kooth’s $271 million contract.
During a public listening to the day he introduced his resignation, advocates for psychological well being companies accused the fee of favoring the pursuits of companies over these of the folks it’s purported to serve.
Lightbourne, 75, is now main the fee, an unbiased physique charged with guaranteeing that funds from a millionaires tax are used appropriately by counties for psychological well being companies. He mentioned he’ll deal with making the fee as open as potential, as a nationwide seek for the following govt director begins.
He involves the psychological well being fee at a second of change. With the passage of the Behavioral Health Services Act final 12 months and its approval by voters this 12 months as a part of Proposition 1, the fee will likely be integrating 11 new members beginning in January. And in July 2026, it is going to cease overseeing county funds for psychological well being innovation and can as a substitute get its personal bucket of as much as $20 million a 12 months to spend on innovation. Conversations are already underway about easy methods to spend the funds.
Lightbourne directed social service businesses in Santa Clara, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz counties earlier than being named director of the state social companies division, the place he launched an effort to maneuver extra foster youngsters out of establishments and into family-based settings.
Lightbourne spoke to KFF Health News correspondent Molly Castle Work about his targets for state psychological well being companies. The interview has been edited for size and readability.
Q: You already got here out of retirement as soon as, to steer DHCS throughout the pandemic. How have been you satisfied to take this job?
A: Back after I was at DHCS, fairly a bit of what’s now the kind of well being reconceptualization in California occurred.
There’s some extent the place you’re feeling a way of paternal relationship for lots of the initiatives. What the fee does when it comes to the detailed end work is admittedly going to be essential for this factor to work.
Q: Executive Director Toby Ewing resigned amid accusations of favoritism with the contracts. How can the general public have religion that this gained’t occur once more?
A: I need to be very cautious now, as a result of the best way you phrase the query implies that I settle for the proposition, and I’ve no manner of figuring out. What I’ve all the time mentioned in any setting that I’ve been in is all the time deal the playing cards face up. Just be clear. Be open. When potential, use aggressive processes.
There’s the well-known three intersecting factors of contracting: You can have velocity, you possibly can have high quality, you possibly can have a superb worth. Pick two. You can’t have three. And you understand, my intuition is all the time to be just a little bit extra skeptical of urgency. I imply, there are big human wants on the market that we need to clear up, however to say every part ought to go by the wayside as a result of issues must occur yesterday — let’s take a beat.
Q: As the interim govt director, are there guardrails that you just assume have to be in place to make sure that taxpayer cash is being spent correctly?
A: I don’t know that there’s something that I’m notably frightened about, however I believe it’s my function to assist the fee because it transitions into Prop 1, into BHSA, and right into a everlasting govt director — simply make it possible for they’ve received all of the procedures that they assume they want — and that we construct a tradition the place we’re certain that they’re able to totally see issues coming in entrance of them.
It’s going to be attention-grabbing that come January we’re going so as to add 11 commissioners. It’s an enormous soar. And doing it in a manner that everyone stays engaged — I don’t have a solution but.
The value-add of this group is that it’s received a fee of fairly rattling dedicated individuals who take it very significantly and produce a whole lot of talent to it. And you wouldn’t need to see that misplaced.
Q: Our nation has seen the psychological well being disaster spike over the previous few years. Are there particular areas you need to deal with?
A: I all the time need to be just a little cautious about having yet one more vivid thought. There is unquestionably initiative fatigue on the bottom. People have gotten that glazed look. So if there are issues that the fee can do to deliver extra assets, extra gamers, extra options that assist, then that’s nice. I simply don’t need us to be piling on new concepts.
Some of the issues the fee has already invested in, and I’m attempting to get extra conversant in this, just like the early psychosis interventions — that may very well be an actual sport changer as I perceive it.
Q: How do you assume funding for psychological well being initiatives must be prioritized?
A: Certainly the outdated notion of full-service partnerships is essential. It means no matter takes — put a staff collectively, wrap it across the particular person, deal with their core wants, like housing.
Don’t assume that with any person sleeping below the bus shelter that you would be able to deal with their wants whereas they’re nonetheless sitting there, you understand? Move them right into a setting the place they will really feel secure, they’ve dignity, they’ve their private human wants met, and in addition no matter therapeutic wants or treatment wants or medically assisted remedy wants.
Q: What are you most wanting ahead to on this function?
A: Because of the place I’ve been beforehand, I believe there are some apparent connections to make. We don’t need to subordinate the fee to the opposite programs. It’s received to have its personal factor. But simply figuring out who to bop with will be useful.
This article was produced by KFF Health News, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially unbiased service of the California Health Care Foundation.
Molly Castle Work:
mwork@kff.org,
@mollycastlework
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