Advancing Public Policies for People with Mental Illness, Chemical Dependency or Developmental Disabilities
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Request for Applications: Medicaid Redesign Team Health Home Supportive Housing Program
The New York State Department of Health (DOH) is excited to announce the release of the Health Home Supportive Housing Program (HHSHP) Request for Applications (RFA). DOH is seeking applications from community based organizations to provide rental subsidies and non-medical services to homeless Medicaid members who are enrolled or enrolling in New York State's Health Home Program. HHSHP is a prior funded program that is in effect from 10/1/2014-9/30/2018. This program will serve participants that are currently enrolled in the program and single individuals who are enrolled/enrolling in a Health Home and may include a certain number of families with minors under the age of 18 years old. The total anticipated amount available for this procurement is up to $500,000 annually, for up to approximately 16 awards. The contracts will run from 10/1/2018 - 9/30/2023.
For more information or to apply to the RFA please click here.
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What's Great in Our State 2018
A Forum to Celebrate Children's Mental Health Awareness
As part of the 2018 New York State What's Great in Our State (WGiOS) celebration on May 8, 2018, the planning committee for the Children's Mental Health Awareness Day event is seeking nominations to honor an individual, program, school, or organization within New York State that is making a difference in the field of children and youth mental wellness. This person or agency's efforts related to mental health should specifically be in areas impacting resilience, wellness, advocacy, treatment, or prevention.
Here's your opportunity to recognize someone who's doing outstanding work!
If you know of an individual, program, school, or organization that is deserving of recognition, please complete Nomination
Form. You may also nominate your own organization or an individual within your program or organization. Returns are requested by Monday, March 26, 2018, by email to Susan Perkins at the New York State Council on Children and Families at susan.perkins@ccf.ny.gov.
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February 16, 12 - 1 pm, CTAC
February 21, 12 - 12:30 pm, MTM Services
Putting the Pieces Together: Shared Experiences of Adult BH HCBS Implementation
February 21, 12 - 1 pm, CTAC
Expanding Options for the Transportation of Adults with Mental Illness
February 21, 3 - 4:30 pm, SAMHSA's GAINS Center
Adult BH HCBS State Designated Entity (SDE) Policy Webinar
February 22, 3 - 4 pm, MCTAC, OMH, OASAS
Technology Solutions & HIPAA Compliance: Getting your CBO ready for VBP
February 23, 10 - 11:30 am, OneCity Health
Clinical Aspects of SBIRT
February 23, 2 - 3 pm, National Council for Behavioral Health
Criminal Justice, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and People with Mental Illnesses
February 26, 2:30 - 4 pm,
National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors
What Are the Megatrends Shaping Data-Driven Healthcare?
February 27, 1 - 2 pm, Manatt Health
Social Determinants Of Behavioral Health: Addressing Suicide In The Community
February 28, 12 - 1 pm, PsychU
Strategies for Integrating Outcomes into Your Clinical Practice
February 28, 1 - 2 pm, Behavioral Healthcare Executive
March 1, 12 - 1 pm, CTAC
March 8, 2 - 3 pm, Alliance for Strong Families & Communities
March 28, 12 - 1 pm, PsychU
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Office Closed - President's Day
February 19
Children & Families Committee Meeting
February 20: 11:30 am - 1 pm, GTM
Mental Hygiene Planning Committee Meeting
February 20: 1 - 2:30 pm, GTM
March 2: 1 - 3 pm
1450 Western Ave., Albany
Officers, Chairs & Regional Reps Call
Children & Families Committee Meeting
March 20: 11:30 am - 1 pm, GTM
Directors/Executive Committee Meeting
March 21: 9:30 am - 12:30 pm, GTM
Developmental Disabilities Committee Meeting
March 22: 1 - 2:30 pm, GTM
Contact CLMHD for all Call In and Go To Meeting information, 518.462.9422
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CLMHD Testifies at Joint Legislative Joint Fiscal Committees 2018-19 Mental Hygiene Budget Hearing
On Tuesday, February 13, Kelly Hansen, Executive Director of CLMHD, testified on behalf of the Conference at the 2018-19 Joint Legislative Budget Hearing on Mental Hygiene in Albany.
Please click here for video from the hearing. Click here for CLMHD's written testimony.
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Governor Cuomo Awards More Than $4 Million to Expand Access to Substance Abuse Treatment Services Across New York
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo this week awarded more than $4 million to develop 10 24/7 Open Access Centers to deliver immediate engagement, assessment and referral service options to New Yorkers seeking treatment for substance abuse. The centers, to be located statewide, further advance the Governor's aggressive efforts to combat addiction in New York State and proactively address the public health problem of addiction to prescription opioids and heroin.
The primary goal of Open Access Centers is to ensure that anyone in need of substance use disorder services has immediate access to addiction treatment services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Staff will be on-hand to help people, family members and law enforcement with addiction treatment services. Staff will also be available or on-call to provide an immediate assessment and referral to the appropriate level of care.
The new centers will be in nine of the state's 10 economic development regions, apart from Central New York, where Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare recently opened a center in October 2017 through a locally issued, state-funded procurement. To view a list of awardees, click here.
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NY Times: How a Police Chief, a Governor and a Sociologist
Would Spend $100 Billion to Solve the Opioid Crisis
The American opioid epidemic has defied all efforts to contain it, and the number of overdose deaths continues to grow. President Trump directed the Department of Health and Human Services to declare the opioid crisis a public health emergency in October and said "we have to do something about it" in his State of the Union address, but his administration has yet to pursue a specific strategy.
The New York Times recently asked 30 experts to think big, but realistically, about solutions. Imagine you had $100 billion to spend over five years - a little less than current federal domestic H.I.V./AIDS spending - to address the opioid crisis. Where would you put that money? Read their responses here.
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NYSDOH Releases 2018 VBP Arrangement Fact Sheets
The New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) is pleased to announce the release of the 2018 Value Based Payment (VBP) Arrangement Fact Sheets for the Total Care for the General Population (TCGP), Integrated Primary Care (IPC), Health and Recovery Plan (HARP) Subpopulation, HIV/AIDs Subpopulation and Maternity Care Arrangements.
The Measurement Year 2018 Fact Sheets provide an overview of the New York State Medicaid Value Based Payment Arrangements, including a high-level description of:
- Types of care included in the arrangement,
- Method used to define the attributed population for the arrangement,
- Calculation of associated costs under the arrangement, and
- Quality measures recommended for use in the arrangement.
The documents can be found on the VBP Resource Library under the VBP Arrangement Fact Sheets tab; Measurement Year 2018 Fact Sheets.
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Raise The Age: The Next Headache for Local Government?
When Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation last year to raise the age young offenders could be tried as adults, criminal justice reform advocates found a lot to be happy about.
Passed as part of a $100 million package in the governor's 2018 budget, Raise The Age Legislation was considered to be a significant victory for the progressive cause in New York State, raising the age of criminal responsibility to 18-years-old and "ensuring that young people in New York who commit non-violent crimes receive the intervention and evidence-based treatment they need."
But, as the October 1 date when the law takes effect approaches, Tompkins County officials are wondering what the local impact will be on their departments, and whether or not the legislation will simply result in becoming another unfunded mandate from New York State. Read more here.
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Crisis Intervention Teams: The Future of Policing?
The state Office of Mental Health estimates a third of those incarcerated in New York have some type of mental illness. So why are they locked up instead of in a mental health program? Actually, Erie County has become a leader in diverting these offenders from prison. Progress has been slow, but steady, using a national model of law enforcement called Crisis Intervention Teams.
"Mary's" brother first starting showing signs of his brain disorder in the 1970s, at age 16.
"With my brother's illness, it was difficult for him to realize that he had an illness," Mary says, "so he would go off his meds and he would act out in different ways that were either somewhat violent or questionable in different ways that we really didn't know where to turn and we needed an intervention."
With no other option, Mary says the first point of contact usually became the calling police...over and over, for more than 30 years. Read more here.
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Cuomo Wants Sex Offender Law Tightened
Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed new restrictions on convicted sex offenders Monday. But an activist who played a key role in the passage of Megan's Law countered that the measure "doesn't go far enough."
In an amendment to his proposed state budget, Cuomo called for restricting sex offenders who victimized children ages 13 and younger from traveling or living within 1,000 feet of schools. He contended that restriction on level 2 and 3 offenders - the two highest-risk categories - would "help secure neighborhoods across the state."
The proposal would also prohibit sex offenders who attacked young children from moving into shelters that house families. Read more
here
.
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Major Psychiatric Disorders Have More In Common Than We Thought, Study Finds
Major psychiatric disorders like autism, schizophrenia and bipolar appear to have more in common than we thought they did. A new study finds that they have important similarities at a molecular level.
And understanding the molecular basis of major disorders such as autism, schizophrenia and bipolar is hopeful, because it could help in developing better treatments for them.
These psychiatric disorders are diagnosed by how a patient behaves. There are no clear signs on a brain "that you can see with your eyes or most microscopic techniques," says Dan Geschwind, a professor of neurogenetics at UCLA. His team's findings were published in Science this week.
That's different from brain diseases like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, which physically change the brain. A doctor can look at a brain and say what the patient suffered from. But recent advances in genetics allowed the scientists to pinpoint the patterns of gene expression in the brain that are linked to these psychiatric disorders. Read more
here.
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Add Value to Your Bottom Line
Adding value is something that Turnbridge President and CEO David Vieau talks about regularly with his peers in the field.
"Value" in the context of behavioral healthcare largely is defined by the priorities of the stakeholder, and creating added value in many instances comes down to speaking the language of various constituents and delivering measurable results that reflect their needs, says Siobhan Morse, division director of clinical services for Foundations Recovery Network.
Whereas providers want efficient operations, and payers might be most interested in rates of client readmissions, patients' family members might care more about the number of times clients have had significant conflicts with loved ones within the past month.
Understanding ways to increase value for all parties can ultimately make the difference on providers' bottom lines. Read more here.
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NYTimes: Meth, the Forgotten Killer, Is Back. And It's Everywhere
PORTLAND, Ore. - They huddled against the biting wind, pacing from one corner to another hoping to score heroin or pills. But a different drug was far more likely to be on offer outside the train station downtown, where homeless drug users live in tents pitched on the sidewalk.
"Everybody has meth around here - everybody," said Sean, a 27-year-old heroin user who hangs out downtown and gave only his first name. "It's the easiest to find."
The scourge of crystal meth, with its exploding labs and ruinous effect on teeth and skin, has been all but forgotten amid national concern over the opioid crisis. But 12 years after Congress took aggressive action to curtail it, meth has returned with a vengeance. Here in Oregon, meth-related deaths vastly outnumber those from heroin. At the United States border, agents are seizing 10 to 20 times the amounts they did a decade ago. Methamphetamine, experts say, has never been purer, cheaper or more lethal.
The decades-long effort to fight methamphetamine is a tale with two takeaways. Read more here.
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