Case Study: California Department of Health Care Services expands youth behavioral health access with McKinsey & Company

California Department of Health Care Services reaches 3.6 million students with McKinsey & Company

The California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) faced the challenge of shifting its behavioral health system for children and youth from crisis response to prevention and early intervention. To fundamentally reshape support delivery, DHCS partnered with McKinsey & Company to help design and implement new programs across more than 20 workstreams as part of the state's Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative (CYBHI).

McKinsey supported DHCS in designing a multi-faceted solution, including a first-of-its-kind school reimbursement model, two digital behavioral health platforms (BrightLife Kids and Soluna), and a statewide grant program. The results were significant: over $2.1 billion was deployed to more than 1,600 organizations, an estimated 3.6 million students were reached across 98% of counties, and over 500,000 children and caregivers accessed digital support, with half coming from underserved communities.

California Department of Health Care Services