Rusty Selix, J.D.
IN MEMORIAM
Rusty Selix: September 23, 1950 – August 27, 2019
His Life Made a Difference in Our Lives
In his lifetime, the efforts of behavioral health advocate Rusty Selix improved and saved literally thousands of lives. Co-author of Prop 63, which became the Mental Health Services Act in January 2005, Rusty’s work advanced and transformed our public system of care in California. He was a brilliant, inspired architect, who embodied that unique combo of both visionary and craftsman, able to concretely define how to make his concept a reality. Rusty knew the system and the players and possessed an extraordinary, almost instinctual sense of what moves to make to successfully achieve his aims. He was a true team player, who cared about the end goal and not about who got the credit for a successful play.
Rusty was diagnosed with ALS in June 2017 and, despite having to endure failing health and escalating disabilities, he never lost touch or ceased to enthusiastically communicate his ideas and goals to colleagues.
Below, I have selected links about Rusty’s work, written both by him and about him, as well as recent Tributes about his life from state leaders:
Rusty Shapes the Future
From Fail First to Help First (February 3, 2005) Prop. 63, Preliminary Implementation Guide
Interview with Rusty: The Writing of Prop 63 (April 5, 2010)
Rusty was already very ill when he sent an email to a small group of us with attached pages titled: Goals for the Newsom Administration, providing a detailed list of Short, Intermediate and Long Term Goals for the future of our public behavioral health system. You can access his goals HERE.
Tributes to Rusty, August 2019
OLA is proud that Rusty was one of our Associates. Our resource book, Working in the California Community Behavioral Health System: A Navigational Tool, was dedicated to him last year. An excerpt from the dedication page: “….The brilliance of Rusty Selix is matched only by his focus, drive, determination, unshakable optimism and trust and belief in the process. Without the efforts of this remarkable leader, the evolution of our California behavioral health system and our book would look quite different.”