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Attorney General James Announces Every State Has Joined $7.4 Billion Settlement with Purdue Pharma and the Sackler Family
New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday announced that 55 attorneys general, representing all eligible states and U.S. territories, agreed to a $7.4 billion settlement in principle with Purdue Pharma and its owners, the Sackler family for their instrumental role in creating the opioid crisis. Attorney General James
secured the settlement in principle in January, which will end the Sacklers’ control of Purdue and ability to sell opioids in the United States, and will deliver funding directly to communities across the country over the next 15 years to support opioid addiction treatment, prevention, and recovery programs. New York will receive up to $250 million for opioid abatement efforts throughout the state. “I am proud to have helped secure the support of every state and territory in the country for this plan to hold the Sackler family accountable,” Attorney General James. Read more here.
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Gillibrand Demands Trump Restore Full $1 Billion In Federal Funding For Youth Mental Health Programs
Last week, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand held a virtual press conference calling on the Trump administration to restore federal funding for two grant programs that support mental health services in schools. The grant programs received $1 billion in funding as part of the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), legislation passed in the wake of deadly mass shootings at the Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo and at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. In addition to gun safety measures, BSCA included major funding for mental health programs, including the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program and the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program. These two grants aim to address concerns of a growing student mental health crisis, and they were slated to provide $1 billion in funding over five years to help schools and school districts hire and expand the workforce of school-based mental health professionals. Read more here.
Related: Real Risk to Youth Mental Health Is ‘Addictive Use,’ Not Screen Time Alone, Study Finds
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Developing a Common Definition for Community Responder Programs
This May, the state of Washington passed legislation supporting the expansion of alternative response teams (sometimes called community responders) as a public safety service. This came on the heels of a law passed in March 2024 protecting the teams from civil liability. While Washington is one of the states at the forefront of community response legislation, they are not alone in these kinds of efforts. Community responder programs have been emerging as a model for crisis response for years, with programs across the U.S. showing the viability of community-led response models that are tailored to local needs and integrated into emergency systems. Some states are now following suit with laws that codify their roles in first response systems and provide protections to team members during emergencies. As these programs have grown in popularity, however, it has become increasingly important to clarify the scope of what they do and their intended impact. Read more here.
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Growth of Collaborative Care Model Driven by ‘Pockets of Champions’
The use of collaborative care models has taken off in terms of utilization by providers and patients alike. A new study by Milliman details explosive early growth of the collaborative care model, an integration of behavioral health services into the primary care setting. Depending on how you slice it, the report shows massive growth increases — as high as factors of 22 times in the case of use in the commercial health plan population — over the space of five to six years. These kinds of growth multiples are reminiscent of the explosive growth some early-stage companies experienced in their early years. And just like in the world of startups, big-number growth tends to be a function of the newness rather than of market dominance. Much of the growth of the collaborative care model is relatively isolated to specific geographies and within specific populations. Read more here.
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Urine Drug Test Data Can Help Chart National Overdose Trends, Study Finds
Urine drug test (UDT) data can generate timely estimates of overdose deaths, a new study suggests. The study, published in JAMA Network Open by specialty lab Millennium Health and The Ohio State University, aimed to determine whether UDT data could provide near real-time indications of overdose trends. Effective responses to the overdose crisis must be prompt, the study noted, which requires a timely evaluation of current trends. However, current publicly available data on fatal overdoses in the U.S. can lag by at least six months. “We were determined to close that gap,” Eric Dawson, vice president of clinical affairs at Millennium Health, told Fierce Healthcare. “We wanted to be able to tell people, here’s what’s happening today with overdoses—compared to here’s what you’re being told today happened six months ago.” Read more here.
Related: New Report: U.S. drug overdose deaths rise again after hopeful decline
Podcast: Xylazine & Medetomidine & Nitazines, Oh My! An Update on New York State’s Drug Supply
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The Innovation in Behavioral Heath Model Moves Forward
As a second Trump administration takes shape, concerns are mounting over the future of behavioral health progress in federal policy. The reasons include proposed steep budget cuts to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Medicaid work requirements that could reduce access to care for individuals with mental health and substance use disorders (MH/SUD), and new limits on 1115 Medicaid waivers that help serve these same needs. These developments raise an interesting question: Would the Innovation in Behavioral Health (IBH) model have been greenlit during a second Trump Administration — given its rollback of social determinants funding and early termination of value-based care pilots. Read more here.
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The Complex Reality of College Student Mental Health: Data Reveals Both Challenges and Positive Trends
The word “crisis” is used frequently, and often inaccurately, to describe the psychological well-being of today’s college students. While it’s true that student mental health has declined in several ways over the past two decades, the picture is more complex than headlines suggest. According to the Healthy Minds Study, which collects national survey data from tens of thousands of students each year, the percentage of students who considered suicide in the previous year increased from 6% in 2007 to 13% in 2024. The percentage who made a specific suicide plan tripled during that time. Though some news reports characterize the current state as an unprecedented crisis, the reality is more nuanced. Recent data, as outlined in College Student Mental Health and Wellness: Coping on Campus, points to a possible turning of the tide after years of worsening trends. Read more here.
Related: Promoting Recovery Capital among College Students in Recovery on a Campus Developing a Collegiate Recovery Program
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They Asked an A.I. Chatbot Questions. The Answers Sent Them Spiraling.
Before ChatGPT distorted Eugene Torres’s sense of reality and almost killed him, he said, the artificial intelligence chatbot had been a helpful, timesaving tool. Mr. Torres, 42, an accountant in Manhattan, started using ChatGPT last year to make financial spreadsheets and to get legal advice. In May, however, he engaged the chatbot in a more theoretical discussion about “the simulation theory,” an idea popularized by “The Matrix,” which posits that we are living in a digital facsimile of the world, controlled by a powerful computer or technologically advanced society. “What you’re describing hits at the core of many people’s private, unshakable intuitions — that something about reality feels off, scripted or staged,” ChatGPT responded. “Have you ever experienced moments that felt like reality glitched?” Not really, Mr. Torres replied, but he did have the sense that there was a wrongness about the world. He had just had a difficult breakup and was feeling emotionally fragile. He wanted his life to be greater than it was. ChatGPT agreed, with responses that grew longer and more rapturous as the conversation went on. Soon, it was telling Mr. Torres that he was “one of the Breakers — souls seeded into false systems to wake them from within.” Read more here.
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This Program Is a Lifeline for the Severely Mentally Ill
The Department of Justice is brainstorming ways to clear homeless encampments and increase involuntary hospitalization, focusing on people with serious mental illness. Fortunately, the federal government already has a resource for people with such conditions: Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics. CCBHCs serve as one-stop shops for people with serious mental illness, providing coordinated physical and specialty behavioral health services. As part of their congressional mandate, the clinics turn no one away, regardless of ability to pay. But according to an April 10 document leaked to the media, the White House was considering defunding grants for the CCBHC
program. This would have eliminated a crucial lifeline for the seriously mentally ill. Read more here.
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Aligning Systems, Advancing Care: State Behavioral Health Integration Approaches
To improve the integration of mental health and substance use care with primary care, many states are employing strategies such as advancing payment and delivery approaches, improving data-driven policy, and building provider capacity and workforce development. Lessons from NASHP’s Behavioral Health Integration Workgroup highlight effective strategies and state examples that can inform future state efforts. Read more here.
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Disabilities Beat: Exclusive interview with NYS OPWDD Commissioner Willow Baer
In an exclusive hour-long interview for the Disabilities Beat, BTPM Disability Reporter Emyle Watkins interviews Willow Baer, the newly-confirmed commissioner for the New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD). Baer, who has served as acting commissioner for almost a year, shares her background, goals for the agency, and recent budget investments in disability services. Watkins and Baer discuss the state's new $25 million funding for regional disability health clinics and OPWDD's focus on expanding employment programs. Baer addresses concerns over potential federal Medicaid cuts and ongoing efforts to professionalize and raise wages for the state’s direct support workforce. Watkins also questions Baer on ethical considerations with the state's aging former institution sites and changes to mental health policy that may impact people with developmental and intellectual disabilities. Read more here.
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UPCOMING EVENTS & TRAININGS
Getting Started with MHFA: Tools and Timelines for New Instructors
June 20, 2 - 3 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Understanding Substance Use Stigma in Rural Areas
June 23, 10 - 11:30 am NCROTAC
Protecting the Mental Health of Hairstylists
June 23, 12 - 1 pm, NYSPHA
MHFA Peer Connections Office Hours - Fidelity
June 23, 2 - 3 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Emotional CPR: An Evidence-Based Support for Individuals with Serious Mental Illness and Serious Emotional Disorder and Their Families
June 23, 2:30 - 3:30 pm, SAMHSA
Holistic Support and Consultation for Farmers
June 24, 12 - 1 pm, NYSPHA
Professional Boundaries (in Rural Communities)
June 24, 1 - 3 pm, NCROTAC
More than one way to map a state: Successfully scaling SIM statewide
June 24, 2 - 3 pm, NCSC
Fostering Collaborative Partnerships: Lessons from Primary and Behavioral Healthcare Associations
June 24, 2 - 3:15 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
State Peer-to-Peer Learning Session: Models of No-Barrier or Low Barriers Emergency and Clinical Crisis Stabilization Services - Part 1
June 24, 3 - 4 pm, SAMHSA
AI in Action: Build Trust, Engagement and Impact in Human Services
June 25, 1 - 2 pm, Netsmart/OPEN MINDS
Demystifying the Program Evaluation Process for Community Responder Programs
June 25, 2 - 3:30 pm, CSG Justice Center
Corrective Action Plan Guidance (Virtual)
June 26, 10 - 11 am, NYS Justice Center
Eating Disorders: The Collaborative School Community
June 26, 1 - 2 pm, SAMHSA
Building Rural Recovery Ecosystems
June 26, 1 - 2:30 pm, NCROTAC
Liability Protection for 988 Counselors
June 26, 2 - 3 pm, NASMHPD & Vibrant Emotional Health
An Orientation to Wellness Action Recovery Plans (WRAP): Achieving a Self-Directed Life Through a Proven Daily Wellness Strategy
June 26, 4 - 5 pm, NAMI
Blueprint for a National Prevention Infrastructure for Behavioral Health Disorders: Report Dissemination Workshop
June 27, 10 am - 5 pm, NASEM
Practical Strategies to Expand the Rural Behavioral Health Workforce
June 30, 10 - 11:30 am, NCROTAC
Peer Support for SMI During Care Transitions
June 30, 1 - 2 pm, SMI TTAC
Next Steps for Cultural Responsiveness in Ethical Decision-Making
July 9, 12 - 1:30 pm, NAADAC
Re-entry Rethought: How Medicaid Can Strengthen Reentry and Reduce Recidivism
July 9, 2 - 3 pm, NAMI
Peer Connections Office Hours - Navigating Difficult Conversations
July 14, 2 - 3 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Intersections of Methamphetamine-Induced Psychosis and Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders
July 14, 2 - 3 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Schools on the Frontline: Early Identification, Intervention, and Support
July 14, 2:30 - 4 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
AI for Good? Expanding Our Understanding of Opinion Leaders in A Changing Digital Landscape
July 15, 12 - 1 pm, NYSPHA
Neurobiology and Recovery: Addressing Nicotine Use Among Individuals with Serious Mental Illness
July 15, 3 - 4 pm, UCSF
Injuries of Unknown Origin (Virtual)
July 17, 11 am - 12 pm, NYS Justice Center
Patient Treatment Preferences in Bipolar-I Disorder: Are We Really Listening?
July 23, 12 - 1 pm, PsychU
Breaking the Cycle: Interrupting Intergenerational Trauma in Substance Use Disorders
July 23, 12 - 1:30 pm, NAADAC
The Impact Of Adherence In Patients With Bipolar I Disorder
July 24, 12 - 1 pm, PsychU
Crisis Intervention Teams: Partnering with Families of Loved Ones with Serious Mental Illness and Serious Emotional Disturbance
August 6, 2 - 3 pm, SAMHSA
From Crisis to Care: How CCBHCs are Revolutionizing MOUD Access
August 14, 3:30 - 4:30 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Peer Connections Office Hours - Co-Instruction Best Practices
August 18, 2 - 3 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Substance Use and Psychiatric Care: Bridging the Divide for Whole-Person Treatment
August 18, 2:30 - 4 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Suicide and Substance Use Disorders: A Current Epidemic
August 20, 12 - 1:30 pm, NAADAC
Toward Whole-Person Care: Integrated Substance Use and Primary Care Integration
September 8, 2:30 - 4 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Mental Health Awareness: Shedding Light on the Interplay between Suicide & Stigma
September 10, 12 - 1 pm, PsychU
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CLMHD CALENDAR
JUNE
CLMHD Office Closed - Juneteenth
June 19
Mental Hygiene Planning Committee Meeting
June 26: 1 - 3 pm
JULY
CLMHD Executive Committee Meeting
July 2: 8 - 9 am
LGU Clinic Operators Call
July 8: 10 - 11:30 am
Addiction Services & Supports (ASR) Committee Meeting
July 10: 11 am - 12 pm
Mental Health Committee Meeting
July 10: 3 - 4 pm
Children & Families Committee Meeting
July 15: 11:30 am - 1 pm
Membership Call
July 16: 9 - 10:30 am
Mental Hygiene Planning Committee Meeting
June 26: 1 - 3 pm
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