Committee forwards DPH contract amendments and retroactive grants for behavioral health and disease prevention

The committee voted June 9 to forward a package of Department of Public Health contract amendments and retroactive grant acceptances to the full Board as committee reports.

Item 4 requested an amendment to DPH’s agreement with University of California, San Francisco, to continue the Child and Adolescent Services outpatient program and the Forte school-based prevention program. DPH Director Dr. Faranaz Faramont described CAS as providing specialty outpatient services for children and youth who have experienced trauma or present serious emotional or behavioral problems, serving clients on Medi-Cal and referrals from San Francisco General and school partners. The Budget and Legislative Analyst recommended reducing Item 4’s not-to-exceed total to $19,800,000 to reflect under-spending; Chair Chan moved to amend Item 4 to that amount and the amendment passed on a 3–0 roll call.

Item 5 proposed extending the UCSF Infant Parent Program agreement through June 2028 to fund three services: daycare mental-health consultation (ECMHCI), the Spring Project for perinatal mental health at Zuckerberg San Francisco General, and outpatient psychotherapy for infants and their caregivers. BLA reported the psychotherapy service budget is roughly $900,000 per year with one-third funded locally and recommended approval.

Items 6–8 were retroactive grant acceptances. Eduardo Silva presented Item 6, the CDC Public Health Infrastructure Grant (Project InVEST) for approximately $9,800,000 to strengthen workforce development, community engagement and data infrastructure through Nov. 2027. Dara Pappo presented Item 7, a $500,000 Physicians for a Healthy California COVID Test-to-Treat Equity Grant to sustain COVID screening and treatment pathways for people in congregate shelters and to build EPIC-based shelter-level reporting. Anthony Taylor presented Item 8, the SOS syphilis and congenital syphilis prevention grant that the state notified DPH of in February and that will support expanded screening, low-barrier treatment and strategic planning; Taylor noted a 217% increase in female syphilis cases in San Francisco from 2017 to 2022.

Supervisors questioned trauma definitions and eligibility for CAS and Forte programs; Dr. Faramont said program access is symptom-based (current symptoms that impair functioning) and not limited to events within the prior year, and that CalAIM state tools are forthcoming. Supervisors also pressed DPH about wait lists and the delay between award notice dates (Oct–Dec 2022) and committee consideration; Gregory Wong of DPH finance explained notice-of-award dates and project start dates that required retroactive acceptance.

Chair Chan and Vice Chair Mendelmann asked that DPH bring awards to the Board sooner after notice. The committee amended Item 4 per the BLA recommendation and moved Items 4–8 to the full Board with a positive recommendation by roll call (three "aye" votes recorded).

Next steps: the full Board will consider the contract amendments and grant acceptances at its upcoming meeting.