Designing a Social Impact Bond for Santa Clara County Mental Health

Designing a Social Impact Bond for Santa Clara County Mental Health

IMPACT:
Local
client Santa Clara County; Santa Clara County Hospital instructors Paul Brest, Keith Humphreys
deliverables White Paper, Social Impact Bond, Oral Briefing number of students 12 students (Law, Medicine, Psychology)
deadline Winter 2015 quarters offered Autumn, Winter, Spring

Overview

Social impact bonds, also called “Pay for Success” initiatives, are an innovative finance mechanism through which investors provide the funds for organizations to provide social services at the request of a government entity. These investors may be repaid, with interest, depending on the organizations’ success in achieving specified outcomes. The most noteworthy examples to date involve pay-for-success schemes to reduce recidivism in the UK, Massachusetts, and New York City prisons. Santa Clara County will soon issue a request for proposals for a social impact bond to reduce the hospitalization of mentally ill patients at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. It has retained Third Sector Capital Partners as an advisor and Keith Humphreys, Ph.D., Professor and Section Director for Mental Health Policy in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, as the evaluator. Students in this Policy Lab practicum are working closely with Dr. Humphreys, the Santa Clara County Counsel’s Office, and Third Sector to develop the scheme, including designing clear metrics for success and undertaking a cost-benefit analysis of the de-institutionalization of mental health patients. They are also collaborating with faculty and students from other schools and departments for guided expertise in cost-benefit analysis and evaluation.

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Faculty

Paul Brest

Paul Brest

  • Interim Dean
  • Professor of Law, Emeritus
  • Director of Law and Policy Lab
  • Interim Executive Director, Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance

Clients & Deliverables

Clients:

Deliverables:

  • Design of regime for social impact bond

In close consultation with Third Sector Capital Partners and Dr. Keith Humphreys, Professor and Section Director for Mental Health Policy in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, students advised the Santa Clara County Counsel’s Office on a social impact bond to reduce the hospitalization of mentally ill patients at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.