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Governor Hochul Announces Nearly $43 Million for Job Training Programs in Every Region Across New York State
Governor Kathy Hochul on February 20 announced awards totaling $42.9 million to fund job training and placement efforts across New York State for individuals impacted by addiction, who are ready to join the workforce. This includes more than $35.6 million for the hiring and retention of vocational rehabilitation counselors at addiction services providers, as well as an additional $7.3 million for two organizations that will provide regional support services for the counselors hired through this program and the organizations providing services. Research shows stable employment for someone in recovery can have several key benefits, including financial stability, as well as providing structure and purpose, and social connections which can help prevent isolation. This initiative will help to improve employment outcomes for individuals in treatment and recovery for substance use disorders by offering employment training and job placement assistance. Funding provided allows each recipient to hire or retain two counselors. Read more here.
Related: The biggest behavioral health workforce mistakes, per this NYC Health + Hospitals chief
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CMS Releases Toolkit for Children’s Behavioral Health Services and EPSDT
On February 20, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the “State Medicaid & CHIP Toolkit for Children’s Behavioral Health Services and the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment (EPSDT) Requirements.” This toolkit serves as a resource for state Medicaid and CHIP agencies in ensuring that children and youth experiencing behavioral health conditions get the care they need. This toolkit includes strategies for developing a behavioral health care delivery system that can meet a range of children’s needs, promoting early intervention for children’s behavioral health conditions, improving children’s access to behavioral health care through service coordination and integration, and increasing the workforce capacity for children’s behavioral health services. Additionally, the toolkit includes descriptive information on behavioral health services and models of care, as well as resources related to the delivery of behavioral health services for children and youth. For more information on children’s behavioral health services and EPSDT, please see the toolkit here.
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To Stay in Her Home, She Let In an A.I. Robot
The firefighters had come a few years earlier to help carry her husband out of the house, and now they were back with what they hoped might become her new companion. Jan Worrell, 85, lived alone near the end of the Long Beach Peninsula, on the last road before the rugged Washington coast disappeared into the Pacific. Many of her neighbors were part-time residents, and ever since her husband died, she sometimes went several days without seeing another person or leaving the house. She sat in a recliner, looking out toward the ocean in the spring of 2023 as the firefighters opened a box and started to assemble a machine in her living room. It reminded her of a small reading lamp, perched on a stand alongside a tablet and a built-in camera. Jan turned back to the window and watched the distant lights of crab boats as they vanished into the fog. She’d been staring at the same view for 20 years, and she’d told her doctor that one of her last goals in life was to never live anywhere else. “This is ElliQ,” one of the firefighters said, after he plugged the new device into the wall. “I think you’re going to love her.” Read more here.
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Navigating Federal Changes: The Value of Multisector Plans for Aging
The 2025 federal budget reconciliation act (P.L. 119-21) will likely have significant implications for older adults and people with disabilities. Reductions in funding for Medicaid, Medicare, Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) may lead to coverage losses and reduced access to services for these populations. With these potential cuts on the horizon, states face increasing pressures to identify alternative strategies to sustain coverage and services. One promising approach is the development of a multisector plan for aging (MPA), which enables states to align policies, programs, and investments across agencies to better meet the needs of aging populations and people with disabilities. An MPA is a state-led, cross-agency, multi-year planning process that convenes a broad range of public and private stakeholders to collaboratively address the current and future needs of all people aging, including those with disabilities. More than half of the states in the U.S. are pursuing MPAs, with many having released plans in recent years. Read more here.
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Social Media Companies Face Legal Reckoning Over Mental Health Harms to Children
For years, social media companies have disputed allegations that they harm children's mental health through deliberate design choices that addict kids to their platforms and fail to protect them from sexual predators and dangerous content. Now, these tech giants are getting a chance to make their case in courtrooms around the country, including before a jury for the first time. Some of the biggest players from Meta to TikTok are facing federal and state trials that seek to hold them responsible for harming children's mental health. The lawsuits have come from school districts, local, state, and the federal government as well as thousands of families. Two trials are now underway in Los Angeles and in New Mexico, with more to come. The courtroom showdowns are the culmination of years of scrutiny of the platforms over child safety, and whether deliberate design choices make them addictive and serve up content that leads to depression, eating disorders, or suicide. Read more here.
Related: ChatGPT Health missed suicide-crisis alerts in high-risk cases: Study
Social media can be addictive even for adults, but there are ways to cut back
Youth Alcohol Cravings May Rise While Scrolling Social Media, Study Suggests
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Demand Grows for Doulas Who Can Help Moms with Addiction
“Don’t give me narcotics.” Emmalee Hortin, a doula, recalled one of her clients delivering that message to hospital staff. Doctors were operating on the woman to clear tissue after a miscarriage. But despite her patient’s pleas, clinicians still administered fentanyl via IV to manage pain, Hortin said. Her client had substance use disorder and had been working toward recovery. “She was really, really upset,” Hortin said. “She actually was really worried about returning to use, and so was her husband.” Hortin is a doula trained in supporting pregnant and postpartum moms with substance use disorder — a role in increasing demand amid the nation’s concurrent crises of maternal mortality and addiction. In recent years, more states, including Colorado and Utah, have passed laws to include Medicaid coverage for doula care. Some clinics are incorporating peer recovery doulas and other providers are offering training to bolster the workforce. Read more here.
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How Health Systems Are Tackling Behavioral Health Fragmentation
Health systems are responding to fragmented behavioral healthcare delivery in different ways: expanding telepsychiatry in rural states, building pediatric health hubs that integrate mental and physical health under one roof, launching behavioral health urgent cares, and investing in navigators and data infrastructure to keep patients connected after discharge. In West Virginia, the access challenge is especially stark. Keri Law, MD, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and vice chair of clinical services at WVU Medicine in Morgantown, W.Va., told Becker’s that 50 of 55 counties are federally designated mental health professional shortage areas. As a result, some families must travel two to four hours for specialty behavioral healthcare — if it is available at all. Over the last three years, virtual care has become a critical strategy for improving access. Read more here.
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KFF: Opioid Overdose Deaths: National Trends and Variation by Demographics and States
Since the opioid epidemic was declared a public health emergency in 2017, it has claimed more than half a million lives. While the epidemic was initially driven by prescription opioids and heroin, it has evolved in recent years, to be dominated by illicit synthetic fentanyl—a substance significantly more potent than morphine. By 2023, most counterfeit opioid pills contained a deadly dose. As of 2022, nearly 1 in 3 adults reported in a KFF survey that they or a family member have been addicted to opioids (29%). Leading up to and during the pandemic, opioid overdose deaths increased sharply. Deaths began to fall in mid-2023 and have continued to decline, though they remain above pre-pandemic levels. While it is not possible to identify a single driver of the decline, multiple policy actions may have contributed. These policies included efforts to expand access to treatment and overdose-reversal drugs and public awareness efforts about counterfeit opioid pills. Read more here.
Related: KFF - Suicide Deaths: National Trends and Variation by Demographics and States
KFF - Alcohol Deaths: National Trends and Variation by Demographics and States
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DOJ Announces $74.5M in FY 2025 Federal Funding Opportunities for Reentry, Community Supervision, Behavioral Health, Youth, and Incarcerated Parents
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced several federal funding opportunities through the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) to support improvements to state and local criminal justice systems. These opportunities address critical challenges including adult and youth reentry, community supervision effectiveness, crisis response and behavioral health services, and support for incarcerated parents and their children. Application deadlines range from March 19–April 6, 2026. Read more here.
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UPCOMING EVENTS & TRAININGS
How AI Is Changing Admissions and Intake in Behavioral Health
February 26, 12 - 1 pm, Behavioral Health Business
Getting Ready for Medicaid Work Requirements: Strategies for Supportive Housing Providers
February 26, 1 - 2 pm, CSH
Transforming Futures: Education, Law, and Youth Wellbeing - IN PERSON
February 27, 9:30 am - 3 pm, Albany Law School Government Law Center
Solutions Not Suspensions
March 2, 1 - 2 pm, NAMI New York State
Addressing Veteran Substance Use: Promoting Recovery Through Collaboration and Compassion
March 3, 2 - 3:30 pm, SAMHSA
Collaborating to Support Youth Returning from Incarceration: What Child Welfare Leaders Need to Know about Medicaid Webinar
March 4, 2 - 3 pm, The Annie E. Casey Foundation
Innovation in Behavioral Health (IBH) Model Cohort II Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) Webinar
March 5, 2 - 3 pm, CMS Innovation Center
The Black Sheep of Addiction: Integrating Tobacco Control into Substance Use Disorder Programming
March 5, 2 - 3 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Building a Licensed Workforce: Organizational Support for Clinical Licensure
March 5, 2:30 - 3:30 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Development and Implementation of Crisis Technical Assistance Centers: Introduction and Overview of Learning Collaborative Opportunity
March 5, 4 - 5 pm, CMS
Reducing Problem Gambling Stigma Through Language and Action
March 6, 1 - 2 pm, National Council on Problem Gambling
Breaking the Revolving Door: How an Intensive Crisis Stabilization Center Is Reducing ER Reliance
March 10, 1 - 2 pm, OPEN MINDS
Strengthening Helping Professionals: Ethics, Resilience, & Attachment-Informed Approaches
March 11, 12 - 1:30 pm, NAADAC
From Feedback to Impact: How CCBHCs Can Use Experience Management to Improve Quality and Engagement
March 11, 2 - 3 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Recovery Housing Funding Sources and Financial Sustainability Webinar
March 11, 2 - 3 pm, SAMHSA Center for Financing Reform and Innovation
Means Reduction Counseling and Overdose Prevention Strategies
March 12, 12:30 - 1:30 pm, Zero Overdose/Zero Suicide
Becoming a MHFA Instructor
March 12, 2 - 3 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Having an Impact: Young Adult Change-Makers Explore Mental Health Challenges and Accomplishments
March 17, 12 - 1 pm, NYS Public Health Association
Workforce Solutions Jam: Extending the Behavioral Health Workforce - Technology as an Extender
March 17, 1 - 2 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
An Introduction to Problem Gambling Screening Tools
March 17, 1 - 2 pm, National Council on Problem Gambling
Leading Change With H.O.P.E. — How Leaders Can Enable Change That Sticks
March 18, 1 - 2 pm, Positively Partners
Suicide and Substance Misuse: Supporting Safety
March 23, 11:30 am - 12:30 pm, PCSS
Understanding The Role of Toxic Shame in Substance Use Disorders
March 25, 12 - 1:30 pm, NAADAC
2026 Working with Addictions Summit - VIRTUAL
March 28 - 29, NAADAC/Mental Health Academy
Care Coordination and Referral Partnerships in the Integrated Care Field
March 31, 3 - 4 pm, Center of Excellence for Integrated Health Solutions
Becoming a MHFA Instructor
April 16, 2 - 3 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Workforce Solutions Jam: Extending the Behavioral Health Workforce - Lived Experience as a Resource
April 21, 1 - 2 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
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CLMHD CALENDAR
March
Executive Committee Meeting
March 4: 8 - 9 am
Mental Hygiene Planning Committee Meeting
March 5: 1 - 3 pm
LGU Clinic Operators Call
March 10: 10 - 11 am
Addiction Services & Recovery Committee Meeting
March 12: 11 am - 12 pm
Mental Health Committee Meeting
March 12: 3 - 4 pm
Children & Families Committee Meeting
March 17: 12 - 1:30 pm
Membership Call
March 18: 9 - 10:30 am
IOCC Meeting
March 23: 1 - 3 pm
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