In 2006, the Department of Public Health was separated from the Department of Health Services, during a major budget deficit. However, in 1978, the county established the Department of Mental Health to provide behavioral health services, amid concerns that funding for mental health services was being diverted to the county's hospitals.
įrom 1972 to 1978, the Los Angeles County Department of Health (now the Department of Health Services) provided the full continuum of physical, mental and public health services and functions.
The County Health Agency employs 31,887 employees. In FY 2015–16, the three departments comprising the Los Angeles County Health Agency had a combined annual budget of US$6,942,989,000, constituting about 25% of the county's total annual budget. The Health Agency is presently led by Fred Leaf as interim director. The Health Agency was established to coordinate and streamline the county's physical health, public health, and behavioral health care services, programs, and policies under a single integrated system of care. Mental Health, the United States' largest municipal mental health system, and The Los Angeles County Health Agency is Los Angeles County's consolidated health agency, comprising the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, the United States' second largest municipal hospital system,