The Future of Community-Based Care: What California Is Getting Right
- Giovanne Schachere
- May 8
- 2 min read
California is rewriting the rulebook on how we deliver care to the most vulnerable communities. Through CalAIM (California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal), the state has created a framework that connects people to housing, healthcare, and social services through a single coordinated system. And organizations like Mysti's Adult & Family Services are proving it works.
From Crisis Response to Coordinated Care
For decades, social services operated in silos. You'd go to one agency for housing, another for healthcare, another for food assistance. Families experiencing homelessness had to tell their story over and over, navigating a maze of disconnected systems that often resulted in people falling through the cracks.
CalAIM changed that. Enhanced Care Management (ECM) assigns a single care manager who coordinates everything — housing navigation, medical appointments, Medi-Cal enrollment, mental health services, substance use treatment, and more. Community Supports brings in practical help like housing deposits, move-in assistance, medically supportive food, and sobering services.
Why Community-Based Organizations Matter
The most effective care doesn't happen in an office building downtown. It happens where people are — on the streets, at shelters, in hospitals, in their homes. Community-based organizations (CBOs) like Mysti's bring a different kind of expertise: lived experience, cultural competency, and the ability to meet people where they are. Literally.
Our mobile teams go to encampments, hospitals, motels, and parks. We don't wait for people to find us. We find them. And that approach — what I call 'meeting people where they are' — is exactly what California's CalAIM framework was designed to support.
Six Counties, One Mission
Mysti's now operates across six California counties: Los Angeles, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Contra Costa, Riverside, and Merced. Each community has its own unique challenges — from the dense urban sprawl of LA to the agricultural communities of the Central Valley. But the underlying need is the same: people deserve coordinated, compassionate care that doesn't require them to navigate a broken system alone.
If you or someone you know needs help with housing, healthcare, Medi-Cal enrollment, or other services, visit mystis.org or call 833-312-7466. We're here — and we meet you where you are.
