Veteran California public servant Will Lightbourne has stepped in as interim executive director of the state’s mental health commission after its previous executive director resigned following conflict of interest allegations.
Lightbourne served as head of the state’s Department of Social Services for seven years before retiring in 2018 and had already returned to service once, as interim head of the Department of Health Care Services at the height of the covid-19 pandemic. On Nov. 4, he was tapped to lead the state’s Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission after executive director Toby Ewing announced he would step down.
Documents obtained by KFF Health News showed that Ewing took a trip to the U.K. funded by Kooth, a London-based company that the state contracted to build a youth mental health app. At the same time, he was working to protect Kooth’s $271 million contract.
During a public hearing the day he announced his resignation, advocates for mental health services accused the commission of favoring the interests of corporations over those of the people it is supposed to serve.
Lightbourne, 75, is now leading the commission, an independent body charged with ensuring that funds from a millionaires tax are used appropriately by counties for mental health services. He said he’ll focus on making the commission as open as possible, as a nationwide search for the next executive director begins.
He comes to the mental health commiss …