Advocacy
For over 113 years, Hillsides has provided children, youth, and families with vital services to help them heal and create a hopeful pathway forward. In step with its mission, Hillsides supports policies that strengthen behavioral health delivery and meet the needs of all communities.
Strengthen the Behavioral Health
Support System to Better Serve Children, Youth, and Families
- Ensure children, youth, and families have access to critical and trauma-informed services in various settings that are appropriate to their needs, enabling them to heal.
- Advocate for effective referral pathways with Medi-Cal Managed Care plans that ensure children, youth, and families
have access to timely behavioral health services that are designed to improve health outcomes. - Preserve access to specialized and intensive care, treatment, and support services that enable stabilization, while
facilitating autonomy of choice. - Advocate for Medical Necessity Parity in the commercial insurance review process to support timely access to
care and continuous coverage for appropriate levels of care. - Advocate for parity in commercial insurance and Medicaid accessibility to high-quality behavioral health services
for children, youth, and families.
Equip Young Adults with the Essential Services Needed to Achieve Lasting Independence
- Advocate for young adults to have access to housing, in conjunction with wraparound services, including, but not limited to, behavioral health, workforce development, education advancement services that are pivotal in achieving stability and success.
• Advocate for an increase in transitional housing beds for unhoused young adults, between the ages of 18 and 25, throughout California, particularly in Los Angeles County.
• Advocate for the protection of safety net services, such as the Access Centers and Problem-Solving, that have been effectively reducing youth homelessness.
• Support policies that increase appropriate resources for former child welfare system impacted youth that are effective in preventing them from experiencing homelessness in their lifetime.
• Advocate for unhoused youth prevention services, such as family intervention programs and life skills training to support youth in achieving stability.
Expand Access to Early Intervention Services that Effectively Prevent Serious Mental Health Challenges and Child Welfare System Involvement
- Advocate for the expansion of early intervention services that are designed to prevent child welfare system involvement and foster care entry.
- Support the investment of resources and toolkits for families to identify early signs of behavioral health issues and ensure they seek early intervention during a child’s most formative years.
- Advocate for prevention-focused school-based mental health services that promote early identification, social-emotional learning, and proactive support systems that strengthen student wellbeing, reduce crises, and ensure access to high-quality services to mitigate escalation of systems.
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