Community Planning Process

Working Together to Improve Behavioral Health Services

Community input helps the County of San Diego plan and improve behavioral health services.

Through the Behavioral Health Services Act (BHSA) Community Planning Process (CPP), Behavioral Health Services (BHS) hears from community members, people with lived experience, families, caregivers, service providers, and organizations about local needs, challenges, and opportunities for improvement.

Community input helped shape San Diego County's first 2026–2029 BHSA Integrated Plan, approved by the Board of Supervisors in June 2026.

Community planning continues as the plan is put into action. BHS is creating more opportunities to learn from community experiences, discuss challenges, and strengthen how services and organizations work together.

Building on What We Heard

During 2025–2026 Community Planning Process activities, people across San Diego County shared their experiences, concerns, and ideas at community meetings, outreach events, and through public comments.

Common themes included:

Housing and homelessness
Crisis services and support for children, youth, and families
Finding services and getting connected to care
Accessible and culturally responsive services
Behavioral health workforce challenges

Community members also described challenges moving between services, staying connected to care, and getting support from organizations that do not always work closely together. These concerns helped inform the County's first BHSA Integrated Plan and continue to guide community discussions. BHS has organized related priorities into four Optimal Care Collaboratives (OCCs), while recognizing that many challenges affect more than one focus area.

Across all four OCCs, discussions will also consider how culture, language, age, disability, geography, and other differences shape people's experiences accessing and receiving care. Issues like workforce capacity, trusted community relationships, and coordination between services will also remain important throughout this work.

Introducing the Optimal Care Collaboratives

BHS is establishing four Optimal Care Collaboratives (OCCs) to bring community members, providers, and partners together to explore shared challenges and improve coordination across San Diego County's behavioral health system.

Each OCC will focus on a different area of the system while considering the needs and experiences of different communities and populations. The goal is to better understand where barriers exist, who may experience them differently, and where services and organizations could work better together.

Four Areas of Focus:

Access, Navigation & Care Pathways: Making it easier to find, access, and move through the right care as needs change.
Family Wellbeing & School Partnerships: Strengthening how families, schools, and behavioral health partners work together to support children and youth.
Housing Stability & Homelessness Prevention: Improving coordination between behavioral health, housing, and other supports that help people stay stably housed.
Recovery, Diversion & Community Integration: Strengthening recovery, community connection, and pathways that help people avoid unnecessary justice or institutional involvement.

These focus areas build on what community members shared during the CPP, along with information from other regional efforts and statewide behavioral health goals. They provide starting points for continued discussion, collaboration, and exploration of opportunities to strengthen the behavioral health system.

How Will the OCCs Work?

Recurring OCC meetings will be initiated in early 2027.

Through these ongoing discussions, participants will have opportunities to:

Share experiences and perspectives, including how challenges may affect different communities and populations
Explore what is working well and where challenges remain
Discuss ways services and organizations could work better together
Connect with partners and existing efforts that may help address shared challenges
Follow up on what was discussed and what happens next

Discussions will build over time, allowing participants to explore starting priorities in greater depth, learn from existing efforts, and revisit issues as new information becomes available.

The OCCs will also bring community experiences together with available data and planning efforts, including the County's Optimal Care Pathways models, to help identify where stronger connections between services may be needed.

Learn More About Optimal Care Pathways.

In-Person Gathering | November 12, 2026

From Shared Priorities to Collective Impact

On November 12, 2026, BHS will bring together community members, providers, and partners for Advancing Throughout the Year: Strengthening Collaboration Across the Behavioral Health System. This in-person event will build on priorities identified through 2025-2026 BHSA CPP activities and delve deeper into the new OCC structure. Participants will join small-group discussions to explore shared challenges, learn from different perspectives, and identify opportunities for continued discussion and collaboration.

Preparing for the Conversation

Participants will be invited to discuss questions such as:

Do the starting priorities reflect what you have seen or experienced?
Where do people face challenges accessing or moving between services?
What existing efforts or partnerships could we learn from or build upon?
Where could stronger coordination make a difference?
What else should we explore together?

Participants do not need to arrive with prepared recommendations or proposed solutions. Experiences, observations, knowledge of existing efforts, and questions can all contribute to the conversation. The event is intended to begin deeper cross-sector discussions.

BHS is coordinating participation through targeted invitations to bring together a range of community and partner perspectives in alignment with BHSA populations. Additional opportunities to participate in OCC discussions will begin in 2027, with information shared on this webpage as details become available.

How Community Input Helps Guide Our Work

What people share through the OCCs and other community engagement activities helps BHS understand challenges, learn what is working, and identify opportunities to improve services and coordination. Community input helps in four distinct ways:

Keeping the Community Informed

BHS is working to strengthen how community input is documented and how updates are shared with participants.

As discussions continue, BHS will work to share:

What community members and partners have raised
What questions or challenges are being explored
Where more information or follow-up may be needed
What progress has been made and what still needs attention

Informing Annual Plan Updates

Each year, BHS prepares an update to the County's three-year BHSA Integrated Plan.

Input from community discussions may help inform future Annual Updates as BHS reviews needs, progress, and priorities. Annual Updates also include separate opportunities for the public to review and comment on proposed plans.

Helping Shape Future Plans

What BHS learns from the community over time also helps to guide future three-year Integrated Plans. Some challenges take time to understand and address. Continued community discussions help BHS consider changing needs and long-term opportunities for improvement.

Improving Services and Coordination

Some ideas may help BHS and its partners strengthen existing services, improve how organizations work together, or identify issues that need more attention. These discussions and follow-up activities can happen throughout the year without waiting for the next formal plan update.

Some issues may require additional information, coordination with other organizations, or decisions through separate processes. The goal is to help community members understand how their input is being considered and how discussions contribute to ongoing work.

Other Ways to Participate

The OCCs are one part of BHS' broader approach to community engagement. BHS also gathers input through community meetings, outreach activities, advisory groups, public comment periods, and other opportunities.

These activities serve different purposes. OCCs bring people together to discuss challenges that involve multiple services and organizations. Other engagement activities allow people to explore the needs, strengths, and experiences of particular communities. OCCs do not replace formal public comment opportunities, Tribal consultation, advisory board functions, or other established decision-making processes.

Visit Connect with BHS for additional ways to share input and stay connected.

Stay Connected

Community planning will continue throughout the 2026–2029 BHSA Integrated Plan period.

Visit this webpage for upcoming OCC meetings, community engagement activities, participation opportunities, and updates.

Learn More

For questions about community planning or the Optimal Care Collaboratives, contact Engage.BHS@sdcounty.ca.gov .

Updated 10/26/26