Advancing Public Policies for People with Mental Illness, Chemical Dependency or Developmental Disabilities
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DSRIP Public Comment and PAOP Meeting Materials
On January 31
st
, the MRT Department hosted a public comment day on the Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) Program. A summary of all testimony from that day, as well as written public comment that was submitted to the Department, has been posted here.
From February 1st-February 3rd, the MRT Department convened the DSRIP Project Approval and Oversight Panel (PAOP) to review the DSRIP mid-point assessment reports and recommendations. During this time, all 25 Performing Provider Systems (PPS) presented to the PAOP their progress to date on meeting the goals of the DSRIP Program. We have updated our website to reflect all 25 PPS presentations, a summary of the meeting proceedings, and PPS recommendations as voted on by the PAOP. All of these materials can be foundhere.
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Creating a Medicaid Supportive Housing Services Benefit: A Framework for Washington and Other States
The Corporation for Supportive Housing has released this white paper that describes the policy and implementation avenues available to Washington State to use its Medicaid resources more efficiently and improve the health outcomes of its most vulnerable residents by creating a Medicaid supportive housing services benefit. Supportive housing combines affordable housing with tenancy supports and housing case management for people who face some of life's most complex challenges.
Research shows that supportive housing improves health outcomes and lowers health care and other system costs. The homelessness response system identifies supportive housing as a best practice for ending chronic homelessness, but it does not have the resources needed to take this intervention to scale. Medicaid could pay for the services delivered in supportive housing but a number of barriers prevent it from doing so today. Lessons learned here could be applied in states around the country.
Click here to view the report.
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SAVE THE DATE: 2nd Annual NYS Suicide Prevention Conference - Sept. 18-19, 2017
The 2nd Annual New York State Suicide Prevention Conference: Pillars of Prevention sponsored by OMH and SPC-NY is a 2-day event that will showcase the latest research and practice in the field of suicide prevention and will feature presentations by state and national experts. Join your colleagues at this event designed to promote collaboration in research, clinical interventions, and community prevention. More details will be released in the coming weeks and months.
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Music Programs Play a Part in Treatment
One of the goals of addiction treatment is to teach patients to manage trauma and process their emotions in positive ways. Helping patients enhance personal expression by creating their own music is one tool that treatment centers are increasingly using to make better connections.
Wesley Geer, founder and CEO of the not-for-profit Rock to Recovery, has been a professional musician for more than 20 years as the former guitarist for the rock band Korn. He brings the program to treatment centers, where clinicians and musicians offer patients, with or without music experience, the opportunity to create songs.
"What we've seen with our program is that music plays a huge part in opening up clients quickly, getting them engaged," Geer says. "It provides an immediate offset and release for all the emotions they are dealing with."
He says the energy of writing music surpasses the other energies created by thought like anxiety, depression and cravings, by helping alter brain chemistry naturally.
"We know this to be scientific fact," he says. Read more
here.
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Why Opioid Overdose Deaths Seem to Happen in Spurts
Drug deaths
in America sometimes seem to come in groups; just look at Ohio.
At least 14 people
died of opioid overdoses
in Cuyahoga County over the weekend, CNN affiliate WEWS reported.
Already this year, more than 60% of the autopsies conducted at the Montgomery County Coroner's office in Ohio involved drug overdose deaths -- and the office is running out of room for the bodies.
Many of these overdoses were related to the abuse of opioids, a class of drugs that includes powerful prescription painkillers and heroin.
Why do so many opioid overdose deaths across the country appear to occur at once? Experts warn that the answer is more complicated than it may seem. Read more
here.
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February 17, 1 - 2 pm
February 23, 12 - 1 pm
March 1, 10:30 am - 12 pm
OTHER TRAININGS
February 22, 2 - 3:30 pm, SAMHSA
February 28, 1 - 2:30 pm, SAMHSA-HRSA
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FEBRUARY 2017
Children & Families Committee
February 21: 11:30 am - 1 pm, GTM
RPC Leads & Coordinators Call
February 23: 8 - 9 am,
GTM
MARCH 2017
Officers, Chairs & Regional Reps Call
March 1: 8 - 9 am, GTM
RPC Leads & Coordinators Call
March 9: 8 - 9 am,
GTM
Directors & Executive Committee Combined Meeting
March 15: 9:30 am - 12:30 pm, GTM
Children & Families Committee
March 21: 11:30 am - 1 pm, GTM
RPC Leads & Coordinators Call
March 23: 8 - 9 am,
GTM
Contact CLMHD for all Call In and Go To Meeting information, 518.462.9422
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OMH Releases 2016 Year End Report on Transformation Plan
The New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) has prepared the 2016 annual report to provide timely information on the progress of the agency's Transformation Plan investments in community mental health services. This report describes the progress and effectiveness of investments in community mental health services in reducing the need for inpatient services and hospital lengths of stay, and the improvement of service effectiveness for children, adolescents and adults.
Click
here for the report.
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NYS DOH Releases Medicaid Accelerated eXchange (MAX) Series Program Final Reports
In October 2015, the Department of Health (DOH) launched the Medicaid Accelerated eXchange (MAX) Series Program, an intensive learning collaborative that puts front-line care providers in a position to lead change. The hope was that by enabling change at a grass-roots level, DSRIP Performing Provider Systems (PPS) would be able to generate and sustain measurable improvements, develop process improvement capacity and accelerate change for both patients and providers. The MAX Series has met these goals!
Since October 2015, the DOH has run the MAX Series Program three times; two programs focused on 'Improving Care for Super Utilizers' and one program focused on the 'Integration of Behavioral Health and Primary Care.' The three programs saw participation from 17 PPS who assembled 23 interdisciplinary Action Teams including over 230 providers, administrators, and community-based organization/social service agency representatives.
The DOH has developed Final Reports on both topics that detail the achievements of the Action Teams as well as lessons learned and best practices that all PPS can leverage and learn from. You can view the reports here.
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Behavioral Health Clinics Struggle With Low Reimbursement Rates From Commercial Plans
Medicaid has a reputation for paying lower rates and having narrower networks than other payers. But some of New York's behavioral health nonprofits say it's the commercial plans they've had to start turning away.
Many behavioral health organizations report commercial reimbursement rates that are less than half the rates paid by Medicaid, according to the New York State Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare.
The issue has intensified since 2013, when the state phased out supplementary payments covering providers' deficits for outpatient behavioral health services, said Lauri Cole, executive director of the Council, which represents 100 providers across the state.
The funding was discontinued because states are no longer permitted to use Medicaid funds to subsidize other payers, according to the state Office of Mental Health.
Low reimbursement rates have led the Staten Island Mental Health Society to terminate most of its commercial contracts over the past few years, according to Fern Zagor, the organization's president and chief executive.
Commercial plans typically paid the children's behavioral health center about $60 for a regular therapy session-less than half the $125 paid by Medicaid, and a fraction of the $200 each session actually costs, Zagor said.
Cole has been trying to convince the state that low commercial rates not only hurt community-based behavioral health providers, but also lead to inadequate provider networks in commercial plans. However, evidence of this remains anecdotal.
The Office of Mental Health said the state is exploring options to strengthen network adequacy standards and mental health parity for commercial insurers.
However, the Department of Financial Services, which regulates commercial insurers, would not comment on the network adequacy issue and currently has no authority to set rates.
For the Staten Island Mental Health Society, getting bigger may be the answer. The provider is merging with nearby Richmond University Medical Center. Zagor said she hopes the merger will allow her organization to negotiate better rates with commercial plans.
--Crain's Health Pulse
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Medication Assisted Treatment: Ready, Set, Implement
In July, President Obama signed the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) that - among other things - mandates our health care system to use state-of-the-science medications to treat addiction, in combination with other proven treatments.
Last year, I attended the official roll-out of the
Surgeon General's Report on Alcohol, Drugs and Health. The report joined the rally cry for greater use of medications as a part of addiction treatment.
In December, another call came. Congress and President Obama signed the 21st Century Cures Act, again demanding more funding and greater use of medication assisted treatment (MAT).
Given the momentum and clear evidence of MAT's effectiveness, why are providers reluctant to use these proven medications?
I asked an integrated health care provider recently and he reiterated what I hear all the time: "We would like to start using MAT, but we don't know where to start. I don't know what I don't know."
For most providers, implementing MAT is a significant change in organizational philosophy. And it feels daunting ... without proper guidance. Planning for MAT implementation requires the same thoughtful planning as implementation of any other service or evidence-based practice. Read more
here.
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The need for holistic treatment focusing on the person is increasingly becoming of paramount significance, especially when there is a growing body of evidence that suggests that physical and mental health are intrinsically interlinked and that one cannot treat each separately. In fact, most chronic diseases lead to mental health issues or vice versa. Studies report that more than 30% of patients suffering from colorectal cancer or coronary heart disease are prone to depression. Inversely, depressed patients are at a 1.6 times higher risk to develop diabetes or heart disease in their lifetime. While we continue to focus only on the physical manifestations, we cannot pay enough attention to the actual silent killer.
The global annual cost of mental illnesses is set to rise to an immense $6 trillion in 2030, from $2.5 trillion in 2010. To put this amount in perspective, consider the global spend on healthcare in 2009--$5.1 trillion. Furthermore, the global treatment gap in 2004 for disorders such as depression and anxiety was more than 50% (half of the patients went untreated). Unfortunately, the situation has still not changed significantly. Read more
here.
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In any given year,
1 in 68
Americans are diagnosed as having autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many of these are young children who will face a lifetime of trying to acclimate to a world that will often seem hostile, if not dangerous and frightening. As the prevalence, awareness and diagnosis of autism have grown over the past 20 years, the design of new models for treatment has not kept pace. As healthcare designers, we believe that new and innovative architectural facility designs can significantly enhance the quality of treatment if these facilities are designed with the advance knowledge of how specific environmental factors affect the behavior and well-being of persons with ASD.
Looking for precedents is not terribly helpful since there are a limited number of purpose-built facilities for clinical diagnosis, evaluation and treatment for children with autism. However, using the latest technologies, construction methodologies and sustainable materials, it is possible to design respectful, flexible and soothing spaces, and to balance safety and regulatory concerns with the creation of therapeutic environments, which can include accommodations for families and caregivers in the treatment process. Read more
here.
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