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New York State Announces Statewide Enhancements to Improve Assisted Outpatient Treatment
The New York State Office of Mental Health on July 14 announced statutory changes and investments made in the FY 2026 State Budget that are being implemented to help improve the quality of care provided under Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) — also known as Kendra’s Law — and enhance the state’s ability to monitor this care. Among the significant improvements made, OMH has standardized ‘Enhanced Voluntary Agreements’ to offer diversionary options for individuals being considered for AOT, introduced a dramatically improved system to monitor the program, and is investing $16.5 million in additional annual funding to help counties and providers bolster coordination among stakeholders. The FY 2026 budget included an additional $16.5 million annually for counties to improve coordination and oversight of AOT. This increase is helping localities coordinate providers, emergency services, local hospitals, and other stakeholders who encounter individuals with complex needs, to reduce reliance on emergency care and increase use of voluntary services. The funding will also help localities update their policies and procedures and improve data reporting to OMH. Read more here.
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Governor Hochul Announces New Data Showcasing Investments Into Strengthening Mental Health Care Statewide
Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the availability of new data tracking the programs established and expanded following her landmark $1 billion mental health initiative and subsequent investments to strengthen New York State’s system of care. In an effort to increase transparency and show the results of these investments, the state Office of Mental Health compiled data on 23 distinct areas of the continuum of care and then highlighted key metrics in plain-language infographics posted to the agency’s website. The data provides insight into the evaluation and impact of programs in four distinct categories: access to care; prevention and youth services; crisis services; and specialized services. Each area provides infographics in plain-language and in a manner that is easy to understand, presenting key metrics to highlight their progress and performance. Read more here.
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12 Ideas for Tackling the U.S. Alcohol Epidemic
Alcohol kills more than 178,000 Americans each year. It doesn’t have to. Drinking’s deadly toll in the U.S. is the result of decades of policy decisions, industry influence, and cultural inertia, as STAT shows in its investigative series, The Deadliest Drug. The U.S. has not made a concerted effort to reduce heavy drinking since Prohibition ended nearly a century ago. The decades of societal and political indifference have been costly. Alcohol, while the driver of widespread death and illness, is often ignored in a fractured system. Screenings are inconsistent or superficial, resulting in a lack of follow-up for people with problematic drinking. Some groups, including pregnant adults and people with metabolic disease, face unique risks from inappropriate alcohol use but frequently fly under the radar. When people do get help for their drinking, it’s often fragmented and reliant on their individual ability to completely cut out alcohol. Efforts at policymaking around alcohol often fail in the U.S., where states are mostly in charge of regulating alcoholic beverages. An influential alcohol industry, which nurtures deep ties to lawmakers, charitable groups, and consumers, has kept a tight grip on regulation — at the expense of public health. Read more here.
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Health-Related Social Needs and Risk-Need-Responsivity: Mapping Where Medicaid and Criminal Justice Meet
When states began pursuing the federal opportunity to waive the Medicaid “inmate exclusion” through 1115 Reentry Demonstrations, a critical question emerged: What does the health care system have in common with the justice system, and how can those areas of overlap be turned into shared strategy? Anyone who’s worked across justice and health care knows that these two systems often address many of the same people, issues, and goals, but they use different models to frame the discussion. Bridging that gap requires a shared language to align health and safety. The first step is decoding some profession-specific language to reveal strategies that help people at the intersection of both systems. Social determinants of health describe the broader community conditions that influence health and well-being. The health care system uses the health-related social needs (HRSN) framework to identify non-medical factors within those conditions that affect a person’s health and stability. Read more here.
Related: States Want to Bring Medicaid Behind Bars. Federal Changes Are Making That Harder.
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Are 988 and Other Mental Health Crisis Lines Missing People Over 50?
In the four years since the launch of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, the nationwide service for mental health and substance misuse crisis support, Americans have dialed, texted or chatted online with the service over 26 million times. The addition of 988 to the nation’s mental health crisis options makes it easier to get immediate counseling and access other help if needed. But a new University of Michigan poll shows that many middle-aged and older adults still aren’t aware of these free services, or aren’t sure about using them. Among people aged 50 and over, 31% have never heard of any mental health crisis line, according to a new report from the National Poll on Healthy Aging, based at the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation. The majority of those polled (69%) had never heard of 988. But this includes 38% who had not heard of 988 but had heard of another mental health crisis line. Read more here.
Related: 988 Enters Its Fourth Year as Demand Grows and the Mental Health and Substance Use Landscape Shifts
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The ‘Hub-and-Spoke’ Model for Addiction Treatment in North Carolina
Holly Warren was recently leafing through one of her old medical school textbooks, trying to recall how much instruction she’d received in addiction medicine – trying to recall, “Did we even talk about this? Was it even on our radar?” “And it really just wasn’t,” Warren said. She received an excellent education two decades ago at East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine, then at Duke University for internal medicine. “But we just really didn’t talk about addiction medicine very much.” Today, Warren knows quite a bit about it. She began providing medications for opioid use disorder, or MOUD, at a federally qualified health center in rural Greene County, North Carolina, and now serves as medical director of the health department in Lenoir County, likewise a rural county in eastern North Carolina, where her clinical focus is MOUD. She’s found support from the NC STAR Network. In 2023, the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration lifted a restriction on health care providers’ ability to administer buprenorphine, considered a “gold standard” for treating opioid use disorder. Now fully capitalizing on this opportunity, the NC STAR Network is an initiative designed to expand access to addiction treatment for North Carolinians. Read more here.
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Connecting Primary Care Patients to Substance Use Treatment: Successful Referral to Treatment
As states continue to advance behavioral health integration efforts, many are exploring ways to strengthen how primary care providers connect patients with substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and recovery supports. While screening and brief intervention models have expanded in primary care settings, states continue to identify challenges related to referral pathways, care coordination, and timely access to specialty behavioral health treatment. This blog post outlines key considerations for strengthening the referral-to-treatment component of Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT). It highlights policy and operational approaches, including state examples, to strengthen referral pathways between primary care and substance use treatment systems. This article also examines considerations related to Medicaid financing, workforce capacity, referral infrastructure, managed care expectations, and cross-system coordination. Read more here.
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8 Things to Know About Mental Health Parity's Uncertain Future
Nearly two decades after Congress passed the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, the law’s future enforcement is in flux, caught between a stalled federal rule, a wave of state-level activity and a new bill introduced in Congress that would strengthen enforcement. Here are eight things to know about where mental health parity stands:
- The underlying 2008 law remains in place, but a key update to it does not. The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act bars insurers and employer health plans from imposing greater limits on behavioral health services than they do on other medical care. The Biden administration finalized a rule in September 2024 meant to strengthen enforcement of that law, tightening requirements around prior authorization and requiring plans to study whether mental healthcare was harder for members to access than medical care.
- A legal challenge from large employers upended the rule’s rollout. In January 2025, the ERISA Industry Committee, which represents large employers, sued to block the 2024 rule. Read more here.
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State Innovations in Improving Access to Care for Adults with Complex Needs in Rural Communities
State have a critical opportunity to improve access to care for people with complex health and social needs living in rural communities. Recent federal investments, including the Rural Health Transformation Program, along with innovation at the state and local levels, have created momentum for states to address longstanding challenges and expand access to promising solutions. States can use Medicaid policy and financing tools to strengthen rural delivery systems, expand provider supports, invest in care coordination infrastructure, and deepen partnerships with community-based organizations (CBOs). These strategies can better integrate medical, behavioral health, long-term services and supports (LTSS), and social services for populations with complex needs, including older adults and people with disabilities, and better align services around their goals and preferences. This brief examines approaches in California, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Virginia that have demonstrated opportunities to improve access to care for people with complex needs living in rural areas. Read more here.
Related: Advisory: How Wearables and Other Digital Tools Are Driving Innovation in Behavioral Health
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UPCOMING EVENTS & TRAININGS
Co-Occurring Substance Use Disorders and Eating Disorders
July 23, 1 - 2:30 pm, MPATTC
Building a Healthy Workplace Culture: Psychological Safety, Accountability, and Support
July 23, 1 - 1:45 pm, Social Current
Supporting Your Team in the Collaborative Care Model: Lessons from the Field
July 23, 2 - 3 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Applying the Risk-Need-Responsivity Framework to the Intersection of Housing and Reentry
July 23, 2 - 3:30 pm, SAMHSA's GAINS Center
Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability & Learning: Leveraging Data to Enhance Tobacco Control and Recovery Initiatives
July 23, 2:30 - 3:30 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Maximize Your Opioid & JUUL Settlement Funds: Evidence based Awareness & Prevention Campaigns
July 28, 10 - 11 am, NYSAC
Scaling IDD Services Without Scaling Burden
July 28, 1 - 1:45 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Evidence to Consider when Advising Patients on Buprenorphine Treatment Duration for Opioid Use Disorder (webinar)
July 29, 2 - 3:30 pm, NWATTC
Expanding Access to Care in Rural Communities: Strategies to Better Serve People with Complex Health and Social Needs
July 29, 3 - 4 pm, Center for Health Care Strategies
From Turnover to Stability: Smarter Hiring, Better Retention
July 30, 12 - 12:45 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
From Workforce Gaps to Workforce Growth
August 4, 12:30 - 1:15 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Peer Support and Recovery at the Intersection of Reentry
August 6, 2 - 3:30 pm, SAMHSA's GAINS Center
5th Annual School Mental Health Summer Academy
August 11 - 12, 9 am - 12:30 pm, SMHRTC
Clinical Strategies to Reduce HIV Acquisition and Promote Recovery among People with Stimulant Use Disorder
August 12, 1 - 2:30 pm, MPATTC
Anticipating Policy Change
August 13, 1 - 2 pm, Social Current
Centralizing Training for Scalable Compliance
August 13, 2 - 2:45 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
From Paperwork Burden to Collaborative Care
August 14, 2 - 2:45 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Creating a Trauma-Informed, Recovery-Oriented System of Care Series
August 19, 12 - 1 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Doing More With Less: How Counties Can Successfully Address Behavioral Health Crisis Response Needs
August 20, 2 - 3 pm, NACo
Building Integrated Care Teams for Co Occurring Behavioral Health and Substance Use Conditions
August 25, 4 - 5:30 pm, MPATTC
Using PSYCKES for ACT Teams
August 26, 10 - 11:30 am, OMH
From Hire to Licensed: Accelerating Your Workforce Pipeline
August 27, 3 - 3:45 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Elevating Peers and Community Health Workers within Integrated Care Teams
September 10, 1 - 2 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Using PSYCKES for FQHCs
September 15, 1 - 2 pm, OMH
Chasing Other Dragons – Atypical Intoxicants
September 16, 12 - 1:30 pm, NAADAC
Creating a Trauma-Informed, Recovery-Oriented System of Care Series
September 24, 3 - 4 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
REGISTRATION OPEN - The 2026 New York State Suicide Prevention Conference
September 29 - 30, Ithaca, NY
Transforming Documentation: From Pitfalls to Best Practices
September 30, 12 - 1:30 pm, NAADAC
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CLMHD CALENDAR
August
Quarterly LGU Billing Staff Call
August 4: 11 am - 12 pm
Executive Committee Meeting
August 5: 8 - 9 am
LGU Clinic Operators Call
August 11:10 - 11 am
Addiction Services & Recovery Committee Meeting
August 13: 11 am - 12 pm
Mental Health Committee Meeting
August 13: 3 - 4 pm
Children & Families Committee Meeting
August 18: 12 - 1:30 pm
Membership Call
August 19: 9 - 10:30 am
Developmental Disabilities Committee Meeting
August 20: 1 - 2 pm
CLMHD Offices Closed - Juneteenth
June 19
September
Executive Committee Meeting
September 2: 8 - 9 am
CLMHD Office Closed - Labor Day
September 7
LGU Clinic Operators Call
September 8:10 - 11 am
Addiction Services & Recovery Committee Meeting
September 10: 11 am - 12 pm
Mental Health Committee Meeting
September 10: 3 - 4 pm
Membership Call
September 16: 9 - 10:30 am
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