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DEPRESSION AWARENESS MONTH
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During National Screening Month October 5 is National Depression Screening Day; an education and screening event conducted by hospitals, clinics, colleges, and community groups nationwide. This year, the focus is on the importance of seeking help. Depression is a common and treatable mood disorder and spreading awareness about the different ways those dealing with it can get help could save lives. Please join DMH on National Depression Screening Day in spreading the word to increase awareness of mental health.
Resources:
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CHECK OUT THE NEW DMH WEBSITE
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The Department of Mental Health has been working closely with
Mass.gov
over the past few months to completely redesign the DMH website. The goal of the redesign is to make the website significantly more user-friendly, and enable site visitors to find and access key content quickly and easily. DMH used a combination of analytic data, constituent feedback, and information from public inquiries and requests to the department to identify the most requested content. Using this information, we’ve created a faster, more user-friendly website that will soon replace the existing DMH website. We’re continuing to import content to the new website, and certain pages on the old website have been redirected to the new version. The development process of the new DMH site is fluid, so we are welcoming feedback now and going forward in an effort to continue to make improvements. Please take a moment to browse through the website, send your feedback, and answer the poll.
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Share your thoughts about the new site.
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What do you think of the DMH Pilot site so far?
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I need to see more to form an opinion
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DMH AWARDED SAMHSA CHILDREN'S MENTAL HEALTH INITIATIVE GRANT
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The
Transition Age Youth and Young Adults System of Care Access Initiative
(TSAI) is a System of Care Expansion and Sustainability Cooperative Agreement grant
awarded by the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) through the Children’s Mental Health Initiative (CMHI) to the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, and is set to begin on October 1, 2017. The award is for $1.2 million dollars per year and the funding will run through 2021.
Massachusetts will use this Cooperative Agreement funding to create attractive and accessible gateways, in the form of Access Centers, to system of care (SOC) services for Transition Age Youth and Young Adults (TAYA) ages 16 to 21 with mental health (MH) and MH with co-occurring substance use disorders (SUD). These gateways will be informal, flexible, safe, welcoming to diversity, and committed to having TAYA identify and achieve their own goals. TAYA entering this service system will be linked to intensive care coordination and/or other appropriate services in the community.
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NEW ONLINE TRAINING RESOURCES FOR OUTPATIENT PROVIDERS
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By Kelly English, CBH Knowledge Center Director
Calling family members, emailing school counselors and talking to service providers: these are just a few examples of the many care coordination activities that outpatient clinicians find themselves doing for their young clients outside of the clinical office visit. It can really add up--did you know that outpatient clinicians who are working with MassHealth enrolled youth under age 21 can now get paid for this work at the same pro-rated rate as an in-office visit? While MassHealth has always reimbursed for care coordination activities through consult codes, the rate hasn't reflected the true value of this work. Until now.
In partnership with the MassHealth and the Donahue Institute at UMass, the CBH Knowledge Center at DMH developed this training to:
- Outline the basics of the hub service system
- Describe the logistics of hubs in terms of complexity of needs
- Illustrate care coordination activities within each hub
- Clarify an outpatient provider’s relationship to youth within each hub
- Explain how to use consult codes that support care coordination activities
Beginning October 2016, MassHealth directed its Managed Care Entities (MCEs)s to begin reimbursing consult codes (Family, Case and Collateral) at the same (pro-rated) rate as a 60 minute office visit. In effect, 60 minutes of care coordination is now equivalent to 60 minutes of in-person therapy. One hundred percent of people who completed a brief survey about the training indicated they would recommend that a staff member or colleague complete this training.
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DMH SPONSORS CUTS AND CURLS EVENT
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Hundreds of children received a free hairstyle and a backpack full of school supplies on September 3 at the 8th annual
Cuts and Curls Event
hosted by
Mattapan’s Finest Barbershop
. Despite the rainy weather, children, and their families came out to participate in this uplifting community event held in the Grove Hall neighborhood of Boston.
DMH was one of this year’s event sponsors. Teams from Fuller, Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Lindemann and Shattuck, as well as staff at Central Office, donated a total of 58 backpacks! DMH staff were on hand during the event to provide information about the importance of mental health and how to access services through DMH and from the Children’s Behavioral Health Initiative. Several parents approached the DMH resource table to discuss their children’s mental health needs with Charlene Zuffante, Director of Child, Youth, and Family Services for Metro Boston Area, and Tina Sang, Program Coordinator for the Office of Multicultural Affairs. One of the hairstylists did an impromptu interview with Michelle Botus, Director of Cross Agency Initiatives, and shared the video with her network on social media.
By participating in the Cuts and Curls Event, DMH aims to break down stigma and help community members navigate the mental health system so children receive the services they need to thrive.
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DMH STAFF VISIT THE MANY FACES EXHIBIT
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Commissioner Mikula, and staff from DMH Central Office and the Northeast Area
picture had the opportunity to tour the Many Faces of Our Mental Health exhibit at the Museum of Science. The visit featured a guided tour from the exhibit creator
Lynda
Cutrell.
Through paintings and sculptures including a larger than life strand of DNA, Lynda uses art to express her personal journey of diagnosing, and finding treatment for her son who is living with schizophrenia, as well as navigating the mental health system. The exhibit also features 99 large scale portraits, 33 individuals living with depression, 33 living with schizophrenia, and 33 individuals who love them. The smiling faces adorn the room and prove the point that mental illness does not discriminate.
Commissioner Mikula also spoke at a exhibit reception
bottom picture held by Screening for Mental Health (SMH) on September 12. Lynda Cutrell was presented the SMH Champion Award at the reception.
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Visit the
exhibit
, now extended though February 11, 2018.
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JEAN BASS RECEIVES INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION FOR PEER SUPPORT WORK
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Intervoice
Trustees Olga Runciman and Dirk Corsten announced the 2017 Intervoice Award Winners at the World Hearing Voices Congress in Boston. The Intervoice awards are an opportunity to give recognition to incredibly inspirational people, groups, research, initiatives, and the opportunities taken to grow the Hearing Voices Movement and create hope across the world.
The Education & Training Award Special Mention was awarded to Jeannie Bass (USA) a Peer Support Worker at Tewksbury Hospital, in recognition of her work and commitment to promoting the Hearing Voices Approach to DMH Northeast/Tewksbury Hospital, gaining support for training programs which have had a significant impact on staff and those people served by these organizations. She was also recognized for her role as co-founder and co-facilitator of the world's first
online hearing voices group
.
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On September 11, a solemn ceremony to commemorate those killed in the 9/11 attacks, and to honor courageous acts was held at the Massachusetts State House.
The Madeline A. Sweeney Award for Civilian Bravery
was created by the Legislature in 2003. Michelle Dancy, an employee in the Northeast Area accepted this year's award on behalf of her late son Jaydon Dancy, who was killed by a commuter rail train in June at the age of 11 in his hometown of Salem. Less than a year ago at age 10,
Jaydon rushed into the water and pulled a kayaker to shore, Unfortunately the man succumbed to a medical episode.
Michelle accepted the award from Lt. Governor Karyn Polito
pictured
, saying she was honored beyond wo\
rds and telling the audience that Jaydon was a "compassionate peace-loving boy."
If you would like to learn how you can assist the Dancy family during this difficult time, please contact
Fred Hammdorff.
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Introducing the new Learning and Development Calendar Search for a variety of learning opportunities in your area or statewide. The learning calendar will be updated on an ongoing basis with personal and professional improvement opportunities as well as continuing education (CE) events. You can easily filter your search by clicking on any of the color-coded categories that are displayed on the calendar.
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Our Events Calendar is the one stop location for upcoming events planned around the state.
TIP
- click the search tab to search for events by by area, category or keyword
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Question: On average, how many suicides occur each day in the US, 21, 121, or 1,021??
Kudos to those 26 out of 60 respondents who chose correctly.
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We'd love to hear more from you about DMH CONNECTIONS:
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NEWSLETTER SUBMISSIONS OR QUESTIONS CONTACT
Michelle Cormier - Communications Coordinator
To view past issues of DMH Connections visit our
Archive page
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STAY CONNECTED WITH DMH ON SOCIAL MEDIA
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