Report 2013-103 Recommendation 31 Responses

Report 2013-103: Armed Persons With Mental Illness: Insufficient Outreach From the Department of Justice and Poor Reporting From Superior Courts Limit the Identification of Armed Persons With Mental Illness (Release Date: October 2013)

Recommendation #31 To: Justice, Department of

To ensure that information about individuals with mental illness does not go unexamined, Justice should document its effort to offer training to mental health facilities that continue to report on paper, and it should ensure that individuals whom these facilities report on paper are promptly entered into the mental health database.

6-Month Agency Response

The Bureaus Training, Information, and Compliance Section (TICS) continues to provide training to mental health facilities as requested by the facilities or through referral from the DOJ Mental Health Unit. As of November 22, 2013, TICS conducted twelve (12) mental health training sessions throughout the state. Field Representatives conducting the training sessions ensure attendance sheets are provided for attendees to complete and sign. These documents, along with the request or referral for training, evaluation sheets and any handouts provided during the training, are reviewed by the TICS manager and maintained in the TICS office area. The TICS manager continues to work with the Mental Health Unit manager in identifying facilities that make errors in their reporting or facilities that have had a significant decrease in the number of records reported from one period to the next.

In addition, no paper reports have been received since July 2013.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Fully Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

The Department has established a process to administer sign up sheets and training evaluation forms at all future mental health facility training venues. At the end of each training session, the sign up sheets and training evaluation forms will be collected and reviewed by the Bureau of Firearms, Training Information and Compliance Section (TICS) manager. Subsequently, the sign-up sheets and training evaluation forms will be filed in a cabinet in the TICS work area. In June 2012, the Department distributed an Information Bulletin to statewide public and private mental health facilities introducing the new electronic Mental Health Reporting System (MHRS). MHRS enables the facilities to report danger to self/others voluntary and involuntary mental health patients to DOJ immediately. Justice will promptly enter individuals whom these facilities report on paper into the MHRS and provide training to these facilities on the electronic reporting system requirements.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

In its response the department describes steps it is taking to administer documents related to its ongoing training of mental health facilities. Additionally, the department states that it will enter information about any individuals that mental health facilities report on paper into its mental health database and contact any facilities that report on paper to provide training on electronic reporting. In subsequent conversations, the department stated that it had not received any mental health facility paper reports since July 2013. Because the department would only have an opportunity to implement the recommendation if it received paper reports, we assess the status of this recommendation as pending and will reassess again at the six-month response.

All Recommendations in 2013-103

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.