Proposition 63, the Mental Health Services Act, was passed by voters on November 2, 2004. This proposition imposes an additional 1% tax on taxable personal income above $1 million to provide dedicated funding for expansion of mental health services and programs. Gift Cards are provided to mental health consumers and family members as an incentive for ongoing and meaningful participation and involvement as full partners in the MHSA planning processes, from the inception of the planning through implementation and evaluation of identified activities. State Department of Mental Health Letter Number 05-01 requires the participation of mental health consumers and family members in this process. Additionally, counties must continue to be engaged in ongoing community planning processes for MHSA annual plan updates and for any new MHSA plan. As such, in order to obtain broader stakeholder input, gift cards allow the county to provide a way to reward those mental health consumers and their family members who so willingly volunteer many hours to participate in the myriad MHSA planning processes. Gift cards enable the volunteer participants to cover the expenses of their transportation to/from planning meetings and also covers the expenses of their meals when they need to be away from home. The gift cards allow the county to relieve the financial burden of those volunteer mental health consumer and family members who may not have the extra funds to allow their participation. The gift cards will be administered in accordance with the requirements outlined in Administrative Bulletin #615.

If there are no incentives available, Consumer and Family member participation and involvement will decrease during the Community Program Planning Process, which is a required component for the MHSA Three-Year Program and Expenditure Plan.