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Governor Hochul Announces $4 Million to Enhance Services for Individuals With Complex Mental Health Care Needs Statewide
Governor Kathy Hochul today announced that nearly $4 million has been awarded to 77 community-based providers to establish, enhance, or expand access to specialized treatment for New Yorkers with complex mental health care needs. Administered by the New York State Office of Mental Health, the awards are part of the Governor’s $1 billion plan to strengthen the state’s mental health care system by adding capacity system-wide, expanding existing programs with a record of success, funding new evidence-based initiatives, and increasing direct engagement at every stage of service. The $4 million will allow healthcare providers on the front lines to increase outpatient engagement, provide effective group intervention, and fast-track access to vital behavioral health programs, including for groups not historically reached by traditional systems of care. Read more here.
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Governor Hochul Announces $30 Million to Expand Residential Treatment Facilities for Children and Adolescents With Complex Mental Health Needs
Governor Kathy Hochul last Thursday announced that $30 million will be made available to develop three new residential treatment facilities for children and adolescents that require on-site care. Administered by the New York State Office of Mental Health, the capital funding will help construct the new facilities in New York City, on Long Island, and throughout the Hudson River regions and provide added capacity for youth statewide. Read more here.
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OPWDD Celebrates Autism Acceptance Month
April is Autism Acceptance Month, a month that until recently was referred to as Autism Awareness Month. Today, many agree that we have moved beyond general awareness about Autism Spectrum Disorder and strive instead to work toward acceptance and understanding. As the fastest-growing developmental disability in the United States, with an estimated 1 in 46 children identified with Autism Spectrum Disorder, fostering acceptance and understanding of autism is not only vital to our OPWDD mission, but also to the integrity of our communities and society. Read more here.
Related: NPR - These twin brothers are identical, but their autism isn't
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The Housing and Health Data Dashboard, a New HUD USER Resource for Researching Social Determinants of Health
Recently, HUD launched the Housing and Health Data Dashboard, a new and exciting resource that serves as a hub for users wishing to access HUD-owned or HUD-linked data to support health and housing research. HUD manages an extensive inventory of data on HUD-assisted households. Some of these data have been linked to national surveys and other data to better understand the health and well-being of HUD-assisted residents. Although much of this information is publicly available, it has not been summarized or organized in a single location. In response to requests from federal partners to make these resources better known and available to housing and health researchers, the Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R) consolidated its various housing- and health-related datasets and sources into a single, easily accessible database. Read more here.
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Strategies to Support Children and Youth Mental Health Needs in New York State
Children and youth managing complex behavioral health needs, particularly those residing in New York State, are in desperate need of targeted support from state leadership. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing gaps within the nation’s behavioral healthcare system, leading to unmet clinical and social care needs such as peer interaction, family support and access to a trained mental health workforce. According to the CDC, from 2011-2021, over 40% of high school students reported symptoms of overwhelming sadness or hopelessness, severely disrupting their everyday lives. In New York City, 38% of high school students experienced similar feelings in 2021, with a noticeable disparity between Black and Hispanic students compared to their White counterparts. This has translated into increased rates of depression and suicide, especially among non-Hispanic black youth, during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more here.
Related: Study describes more severe pediatric mental health crises during pandemic
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Mental Health Care is Hard to Find, Especially for People with Medicare or Medicaid
With rates of suicide and opioid deaths rising in the past decade and children's mental health declared a national emergency, the United States faces an unprecedented mental health crisis. But access to mental health care for a significant portion of Americans — including some of the most vulnerable populations — is extremely limited, according to a new government report released Wednesday. The report, from the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General, finds that Medicare and Medicaid have a dire shortage of mental health care providers. The report looked at 20 counties with people on Medicaid, traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans, which together serve more than 130 million enrollees — more than 40% of the U.S. population, says Meridith Seife, the deputy regional inspector general and the lead author of the report. Read more here.
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HRSA Hosts Roundtable on New National Survey on the State of the Nursing Workforce
The Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) convened leaders last week from over 25 nursing and health care organizations for a roundtable discussion on the newly released findings of the National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses — the first comprehensive federal survey of nurses since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The survey is a comprehensive picture of the nursing workforce, the largest health care profession in the United States, conducted every four years by HRSA’s National Center for Health Workforce Analysis in collaboration with the U. S. Census Bureau. Nearly 50,000 nurses responded to the survey questions and reported on topics such as education, training, job satisfaction, as well as their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more here.
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Starting Treatment at Discharge for Alcohol-Related Hospital Stays Shows Benefits
Starting medication for alcohol use disorder (MAUD) at hospital discharge reduced readmission risk, a cohort study suggested. Of nearly 10,000 alcohol-related hospitalizations of Medicare beneficiaries, only 2% (192) involved initiation of MAUD at the time of discharge, Eden Bernstein, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues found.
In this small number, MAUD initiation at discharge was linked with a 42% decreased incidence of returning to the hospital within 30 days (incident rate ratio [IRR] 0.58, 95% CI 0.45-0.76, the researchers reported in JAMA Network Open. Read more here.
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The Texas Judge Who Orders Patients to Take Their Meds
SAN ANTONIO—Standing outside an old state psychiatric hospital in ostrich cowboy boots and jeans, Oscar Kazen doesn’t look like a judge about to walk into court. He zips on his black robe, settles into a makeshift courtroom in the hospital basement and prepares to make the same pitch to three people in, or who have been in, the hospital after a mental-health crisis. “Do you want to get out of that hospital? I can do that,” Kazen says, but “you gotta promise me three things: “One, you’ll always be honest with us.” “You’re always gonna show up.” And three: “I just want you to keep taking your medications, man. The whole way through. Now if you’ve got problems with the medications, we’ll talk about it.” Kazen, a jovial 61-year-old, is a pioneer in this kind of court-supervised treatment, which is designed to help people with the most severe mental illnesses who have already been jailed or treated in emergency rooms several times. Read more here.
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Expanding the Clubhouse Model and Community Based Therapy
Clubhouses in the mental health space are a form of community-based therapy. The model was introduced in the 1930s and 1940s as a form of psychosocial rehabilitation. Clubhouses focus on providing services to people with serious mental illness. The goal is to rehabilitate members back into society where they can thrive and be healthy. Fountain House, a New York City nonprofit which has pioneered the clubhouse model, focuses on providing free, safe, and diverse spaces for its 2,000 members. The voluntary organization encourages members to help design and lead activities. Members also, through participation in the program, saw their Medicaid costs drop 21%, according to an NYU study. Read more here.
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LGBT Adults’ Experiences with Discrimination and Health Care Disparities: Findings from the KFF Survey of Racism, Discrimination, and Health
LGBT adults in the U.S. are a growing population who have historically experienced health disparities. Past research shows that LGBT adults face increased challenges when it comes to mental health outcomes and access to care, experiences with serious mental health issues (particularly among trans adults), their physical health (including higher rates of disability among younger LGBT adults), and barriers to accessing and affording needed care. This report focuses on LGBT adults’ experiences with discrimination in their daily lives and in health care settings in addition to experiences with severe mental health crises, homelessness, well-being and stress, and experiences accessing mental health care. Read more here.
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Docs Don’t Want to Treat ‘Them’
It turns out that lifting restrictions on doctors prescribing buprenorphine, a controlled drug used to treat opioid use disorder, is only the first step to expanding access to addiction treatment. A 2022 law removed a requirement that practitioners undergo special training to prescribe the drug. But the measure hasn’t been the game-changer lawmakers and federal agencies had hoped it would be, according to Thomas Prevoznik, deputy assistant administrator for the Drug Enforcement Administration. Speaking Monday at the Rx and Illicit Drug Summit in Atlanta, Georgia, Prevoznik said the total volume of buprenorphine prescriptions dispensed since the law entered into force has remained around 1.4 million and hasn’t spiked up as expected, Carmen reports. Read more here.
Related: DEA and HHS issue letter supporting MOUD
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Virtual Treatment Alone Can’t Solve Substance Use Disorder Epidemic, Experts Warn
Providers are throwing caution flags on the field of virtual substance use disorder (SUD) treatment. Virtual SUD treatment boasts serious benefits, including convenience and accessibility, but not all patients are well-suited to receiving care through exclusively virtual means. While virtual therapy may be the best fit for some patients or the only option for patients unable to attend in-person appointments, the SUD industry may need to carefully consider virtual care’s role in treatment. Read more here.
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UPCOMING EVENTS & TRAININGS
Accountable Care Organization Primary Care Flex Model (ACO PC Flex Model) Overview Webinar
April 4, 2 - 3 pm, CMS
Naloxone in Public Housing: Success in St. Louis
April 4, 2 - 3:30 pm, SAMHSA
Expanding Peer Support Services in Rural, Remote, and Tribal Settings
April 4, 3 - 4 pm, SMI Advisor
Lessons from the Camden Coalition’s Care Management RCT
April 5, 12 - 1 pm, Camden Coalition
Empowering Change in the SUD Ecosystem
April 10, 12 - 1 pm, Health Management Associates
Person-Centered Service Planning in HCBS: Individual Rights and Modifications of the Settings Requirements of Provider-Owned or Controlled Residential Settings
April 10, 2 - 3:30 pm, CMCS
Advancing Crisis Communications: Highlighting Models of 911/988 Collaboration
April 11, 2 - 3 pm, NACo
Child and Adolescent Mental Health for Primary Care Clinicians
April 15 - 16, 9 am - 5 pm, Project TEACH
The Clubhouse Model: Designing Planned Communities to Empower People with Serious Mental Illness
April 16, 2 - 3 pm, Center for Health Care Strategies
Ask the Expert: Telehealth During Crisis Response
April 17, 2 - 3 pm, CSG Justice Center
Outreach and Unsheltered Homelessness: Strategies for Health Centers and Service Providers
April 18, 2 - 3 pm, HRSA
The Essentials and Beyond of Perinatal Psychiatry: Psychopharmacology & Psychotherapy
April 21, 12 - 4 pm, Project TEACH
Navigating Mental Health Care for Immigrant and Forcibly Displaced Communities
April 24, 12 - 1 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Beyond the Numbers and Visuals: Building Your CBO Data-Driven Digital Marketing Strategy
April 25, 2 - 3:30 pm, SAMHSA
Training Treatment Court Teams: Navigating Harm Reduction in Drug Courts
April 29, 2 - 3:30 pm, SAMHSA's GAINS Center
Implicit Bias: Using Brain Science To Understand, Recognize and Counter It
May 2, 2 - 3:30 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Consumer Perspectives on the Camden Coalition care Management RCT Study Findings
May 9, 12 - 1 pm, Camden Coalition
2024 System of Care Virtual Summit
May 14 - 16, 12 - 5 pm, NCCTAC
Innovative Approaches for Improving the Transition from Hospitals to Schools: Supporting Youth During and Following a Suicide-Related Crisis
May 16, 12 - 1 pm, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
Identifying Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in a Death Investigation
May 16, 2 - 3 pm, OMH SPCNY
Introduction to Psychedelics for the Treatment of Substance Use Disorder
June 13, 1 - 3 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
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CLMHD CALENDAR
APRIL
LGU Clinic Operators Meeting
April 9: 10 - 11:30 am
Addiction Services & Supports (ASR) Committee Meeting
April 11: 11 am - 12 pm
Developmental Disabilities Committee Meeting
April 11: 1 - 2:30 pm
Mental Health Committee Meeting
April 11: 3 - 4 pm
Children & Families Committee Meeting
April 16: 11:30 am - 1 pm
Membership Call
April 17: 9 - 10:30 am
MAY
Executive Committee Meeting
May 1: 8 - 9 am
Quarterly LGU Billing Staff Call
May 7: 11 am - 12 pm
CLMHD Spring Full Membership Meeting
May 8 - 10, Lake George, NY
LGU Clinic Operators Meeting
May 14: 10 - 11:30 am
Membership Call
May 15: 9 - 10:30 am
Children & Families Committee Meeting
May 21: 11:30 am - 1 pm
LSP Support Session
May 23: 1 - 2:30 pm
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