Currently, EVALCORP is partnering with eight counties across the state of California on behavioral health initiatives. In this post, we offer a snapshot of our work in one of those counties to illustrate how our program evaluation and needs assessment services work in the behavioral health sector, and touch on the future of mental health and substance use services statewide.
Comprehensive Behavioral Health Evaluation Services
For many of the eight counties that we are partnering with on behavioral health services in California, we provide research consulting services for multiple programs. This is true of the county that we discuss in this post. In this county, we are providing services for the following programs:
- We offer systems-level evaluation of all the county’s Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI) programs. PEI programs focus on providing short-term treatment to help youth and adults manage mild to moderate mental health issues before they worsen. We’ve created custom tools for all service providers and their programs, helped the county track metrics for contract monitoring, and developed the annual evaluation report to help the county document success.
- We assist with their Community Program Planning Process (CPPP)—community engagement efforts that bring a variety of voices to mental health planning. To do so, we collect and analyze data from community needs assessments and focus groups to develop Mental Health Service Act (MHSA) Annual Updates and Three-Year Program and Expenditure Plans that ensure regulatory compliance.
- We provide evaluation services for their Innovation (INN) initiatives, or cutting-edge mental health projects designed to improve access, quality, and outcomes for underserved communities. Our evaluation consultants help the county implement and test new approaches for behavioral health. We have supported seven INN projects in this way throughout our contract and developed independent annual reports for each INN project.
- We are conducting a multi-phase, systems-level evaluation of Community Services and Support (CSS)-funded programs, which aim to improve access to underserved populations and bring recovery-oriented approaches to systems. Our services include conducting an initial evaluability assessment, designing an evaluation framework in alignment with state regulations, and completing annual evaluation summary reports.
Below, we explore just a few of many proud moments in our partnership with the county.
Fostering Partnership through a Hands-On Approach
We maintain a hands-on approach with Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI) providers in the county, which has created a web of authentic partnerships that amplifies our impact across all Mental Health Service Act (MHSA) components. Because we maintain regular, direct support relationships with PEI providers, they actively help us engage with the community and distribute surveys during the Community Program Planning Process (CPPP). We are proud of the genuine community engagement created by this approach. These same providers often deliver Community Services and Support (CSS) services, too, so our PEI relationships naturally extend our reach into other programs that we provide services for in the county. This interconnected approach means that when the county needs support, we’re not starting from scratch—we’re leveraging trusted relationships that span the entire system, making every evaluation more robust and community-connected.
Reaching Communities through Methodological Innovation
Through our work with the county, we have discovered that truly inclusive data collection requires rethinking standard methodologies, not just translating them. Meeting directly with organizations serving Indigenous populations revealed that traditional survey approaches would have systematically excluded entire communities. In response, we developed interview-style tools, incorporated visual elements, and created new reporting frameworks that honored different ways of sharing experiences. This iterative, partnership-based approach became our template for working with hard-to-reach populations throughout the county. What started as adapting methods for one community transformed into a more responsive, equity-centered evaluation philosophy that now influences how we approach all our data collection efforts.
Increasing Representation through Tailored Evaluation Methods
We knew that the methodological innovations that we developed had worked when our partners serving Indigenous communities from Mexico and Central America told us that we had successfully captured their clients’ authentic experiences in our evaluation. The partner organization we worked with expressed genuine appreciation for our efforts, as more standard and uniform approaches were not well-suited to their clients’ needs. When they confirmed that our reporting truly reflected their clients’ realities, it validated both our collaborative approach and the county’s commitment to ensuring that the most underserved populations have a meaningful voice in shaping mental health services. Moments like these indicate why our work matters beyond data collection—our services can provide an avenue for vulnerable populations to have their voices heard.
Looking to the Future: Leveraging Our MHSA Insight through the BHSA Transition
Our experience in collaborating with this and other counties in the state of California has granted us knowledge that we are currently using to assist county behavioral health leaders as they transition their programming from the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) to the Behavioral Health Services Act (BHSA). Many of EVALCORP’s evaluation consultants who have worked on MHSA projects like those described in this post are members of our BHSA Compliance & Integration Workgroup. This group collaborates to help counties in the state navigate changing requirements and develop innovative programs in response to new guidelines. Though PEI, INN, and CSS funding sources will be shifting to new areas in 2026, our commitment to helping county behavioral health programs measure their impact and gain insight into the communities they serve will remain the same.
Ensuring Community Resilience through Behavioral Health Programming
Behavioral health programs represent a critical component of comprehensive public health infrastructure. When mental health and substance use issues go untreated, they create cascading effects that extend far beyond individual suffering—impacting families, schools, workplaces, and entire communities. By investing in culturally responsive behavioral health services that reach underserved populations, counties are addressing health equity at its foundation, recognizing that mental wellness is inseparable from physical health, economic stability, and community resilience. The collaborative, community-centered evaluation approaches described above ensure that these vital programs are not just implemented, but continuously refined to maximize their public health impact, creating healthier communities for everyone.
If you are a behavioral health services provider and are interested in learning about how EVALCORP might help you with program evaluation or needs assessment services, we would love to connect. Schedule a consultation with us to learn more!