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Attorney General James Sues Trump Administration for Gutting Critical Social Services
New York Attorney General Letitia James today led a coalition of 20 other attorneys general in suing the federal administration to stop its unlawful attempt to gut lifesaving health, education, and social service programs for low-income families. Earlier this month, in a chaotic reversal of decades of agency policy, the administration issued sweeping new directives barring many safety net programs from serving all residents, regardless of immigration status. The changes threaten access to core services such as Head Start, Meals on Wheels, child welfare programs, domestic violence shelters, housing assistance, mental health treatment, food banks, and community health centers. Attorney General James and the coalition are asking the court to halt these policies and act quickly to prevent the collapse of some of the nation’s most vital public programs. Starting on July 10, four federal agencies – the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Education (ED), Labor (DOL), and Justice (DOJ) – issued a coordinated set of rules and guidance documents reinterpreting the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), a 1996 law governing access to public benefits. Read more here.
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DiNapoli: Proposed Congressional Cuts to SNAP Program Mean More New Yorkers Without Enough Food
Proposed federal changes to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), the nation’s largest program helping households obtain food, would increase costs to state governments, limit eligibility and reduce the value of future benefits according to a new report by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. The most recent available data show 1 in 8 New York households were food insecure between 2021 and 2023. Almost 3 million New Yorkers relied on SNAP as of March 2025. “The state has made meaningful efforts to reduce food insecurity, but it will be hard-pressed to expand or even retain these efforts if Washington shifts billions of dollars in costs to New York,” DiNapoli said. “If this legislation passes Congress, it will harm America’s most vulnerable residents, including here in New York where food insecurity has continued to be a significant problem post-pandemic.” Read more here.
Related: EngageWell IPA Expands Food-as-Medicine Program via NYS 1115 Medicaid Waiver to Strengthen NYC’s Food Safety Net
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Dr. John Barbuto Appointed Acting Executive Deputy Commissioner at OPWDD
OPWDD has named Dr. John Barbuto as its new Acting Executive Deputy Commissioner. Well known to many in the field, Dr. Barbuto brings decades of experience in developmental disabilities, mental health, clinical services, and research. He began his career providing direct care in residential settings and later held leadership roles at provider agencies, the Stratton VA Medical Center, and OPWDD itself, where he has served since 2018. Most recently, he oversaw more than 1,000 state-operated programs, 14,000 staff, and a wide portfolio of residential, clinical, and day services. Commissioner Willow Baer praised Dr. Barbuto’s commitment and vision, calling him “an asset in his new position” as the agency moves forward with its strategic plan.
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Upended by Meth, Some Communities Are Paying Users to Quit
Jamie Mains showed up for her checkup so high that there was no point in pretending otherwise. At least she wasn’t shooting fentanyl again; medication was suppressing those cravings. Now it was methamphetamine that manacled her, keeping her from eating, sleeping, thinking straight. Still, she could not stop injecting. “Give me something that’s going to help me with this,” she begged her doctor. “There is nothing,” the doctor replied. Overcoming meth addiction has become one of the biggest challenges of the national drug crisis. Fentanyl deaths have been dropping, in part because of medications that can reverse overdoses and curb the urge to use opioids. But no such prescriptions exist for meth, which works differently on the brain. In recent years, meth, a highly addictive stimulant, has been spreading aggressively across the country, rattling communities and increasingly involved in overdoses. Lacking a medical treatment, a growing number of clinics are trying a startlingly different strategy: To induce patients to stop using meth, they pay them. Read more here
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Avoid Giving Smartphones to Children Under 13, Research Suggests
My husband and I were trying to remember exactly when our son first got a smart phone, and we pinpointed it to about age 15, when he successfully lobbied us to let him walk and bike home from junior high. Our younger daughter made the same case for one at age 14, arguing impassionedly that it would let us track her location “in case I’m kidnapped.” Thrilled to have cell phones, the kids were swept up in endless hours of texting and online games, although we did manage (barely) to keep the phones turned off for family meals and bedtime. We’d been hesitant – when my daughter first asked for one, during elementary school, we were put off by the after-school sight of several kids on the playground not talking, not playing, but hunched over their devices. We’re relieved to have waited for a number of reasons, including a newly published global study by Sapien Labs that links pre-teen smartphone ownership to poorer mental health and well-being in young adulthood. This remarkable study, based on data from its Global Mind Project involving more than 100,000 young people, found that 18-to-24-year-olds who were given their first smartphone at age 12 or younger “were more likely to report suicidal thoughts, aggression, detachment from reality, poorer emotional regulation, and low self-worth.” Read more here.
Related: Protecting the Developing Mind in a Digital Age: A Global Policy Imperative
Governor Hochul, Secretary Rodham Clinton and #HalfTheStory Establish First Teen Tech Council for New York, Providing Authentic Youth Perspectives on Distraction-Free School Initiative
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CMS’ Behavioral Health Workforce Funding, Patient Coverage Could Shrink
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has outlined a shift in eligibility oversight and workforce initiatives for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), with implications for the behavioral health workforce. The agency will not extend the continuous enrollment guidelines that have previously allowed some individuals to stay enrolled even if they were ineligible to prevent “unsustainable expenditures.” CMS noted it will also not approve or extend existing Medicaid-funded workforce programs previously intended to strengthen staffing across behavioral health, primary care and home and community services. To date, these programs in five states have received $1 billion in federal funding. Now, CMS will let currently approved initiatives “run out their course,” but going forward it will only focus on supporting programs that demonstrate “clear health benefits, cost savings, and strong accountability for federal spending,” according to the press release. Read more here.
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‘I Just Couldn’t Stop Crying’: How Prison Affects Black Men’s Mental Health Long After They’ve Been Released
Mike returned home to Philadelphia after a 15-year prison sentence and suffered an emotional breakdown. “I just couldn’t stop crying … I don’t know. It was the anxiety. It was just a lot,” he said. “I was under a lot of pressure and it just came crashing down.” Mike, who was in his late 40s when we spoke, told me about his childhood filled with abuse, his first arrest at age 14, and the over 20 years of his life that he spent behind bars. As a registered nurse and nurse scientist who studies how incarceration affects mental health, I know Mike’s experience after release from prison is not uncommon. Studies show that Black men who have experienced incarceration have higher rates of PTSD, depression and psychological distress compared with Black men who have never been incarcerated. Working in psychiatric hospitals in Philadelphia, I met many patients in crisis who had been incarcerated at some point in their lives. Read more here.
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The Power of Community: Middlesex County, New Jersey Invests in Behavioral Health Partnership
Systemwide change in behavioral health care is possible when communities invest in learning and collaboration. In Middlesex County, New Jersey, collaboration transformed how stakeholders across the county — including those from schools, the justice system, and provider organizations— support the behavioral health needs of community members. Following a Behavioral Health Roundtable in May 2023 attended by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and other state and county leaders, stakeholders in Middlesex County were eager to identify opportunities to better address local behavioral health needs. This momentum led to the development of the Middlesex County Behavioral Health Partnership, spearheaded by local leaders from the county’s Department of Community Services, Office of Human Services. The initiative features virtual and in-person convenings, with monthly sessions addressing behavioral health and well-being topics across the lifespan. Read more here.
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Behavioral Health Providers Grapple with Fragmented Tech, Eye Smarter Investments
A majority of behavioral health providers are using outdated and disjointed electronic health record (EHR) and care coordination systems – and they know it. That’s one of the clearest takeaways from a new Behavioral Health Business research initiative, which found that nearly 85% of respondents rely on multiple systems or platforms that are either partially integrated or fully siloed. Behavioral health has lagged behind physical health providers in terms of EHR adoption. This is in part because behavioral health providers were left out of the 2009 HITECH Act, which gave health care providers funding to encourage the meaningful use of EHRs. Despite high satisfaction scores among some users, the survey reveals cracks forming across the behavioral health IT foundation as providers wrestle with interoperability, flexibility and long-term viability. Read more here.
Related: Qualifacts, EHR maker for behavioral health orgs, doubles down on AI with product launch
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Access to Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder: Highlights from Recent FORE Grantee Publications
Over the last five years, FORE-funded researchers have published nearly 60 journal articles that advance our understanding of how policy and practice shape access to prevention, treatment, and recovery supports for people with opioid use disorder (OUD). To bring more attention to their work, FORE has launched a new series of data briefs. The first, released today, captures key findings from five studies that examined opportunities and efforts to broaden access to medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) such as buprenorphine via mental health clinics, primary care offices, pharmacies, and emergency departments. The studies shed light on why — despite evidence of MOUD’s effectiveness and an expansion of insurance coverage enabled by the Affordable Care Act — fewer than one in five people diagnosed with OUD received some form of MOUD in 2023. Building on surveys, focus groups, and analyses of data from electronic medical records and medical claims, the authors identify key provider-, facility-, and system-level factors that enhance or inhibit patients’ Access to MOUD in these settings. Read more here.
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Medicaid Cuts Are Likely to Worsen Mental Health Care in Rural America
Across the nation, Medicaid is the single largest payer for mental health care, and in rural America, residents disproportionately rely on the public insurance program. But Medicaid cuts in the massive tax and spending bill signed into law earlier this month will worsen mental health disparities in those communities, experts say, as patients lose coverage and rural health centers are unable to remain open amid a loss of funds. “The context to begin with is, even with no Medicaid cuts, the access to mental health services in rural communities is spotty at best, just very spotty at best — and in many communities, there’s literally no care,” said Ron Manderscheid, former executive director of the National Association of County Behavioral Health and Developmental Disability Directors. Cuts over the next 10 years could force low-income rural families to pay for mental health care out of pocket on top of driving farther for care, experts say. Many will simply forgo care for depression, bipolar disorder and other illnesses that need consistent treatment. Read more here.
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UPCOMING EVENTS & TRAININGS
Beyond Access: CCBHCs and the Future of Rural Behavioral Health
July 24, 2 - 2:30 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Improving Medicaid Crisis Response: Introduction to National Training and Technical Assistance Center (NTAC) and Shaping Future Technical Assistance Support
July 23, 2 - 3 pm, CMS
Integrating Behavioral Health and Primary Care in Rural Communities
July 24, 10 - 11:30 am, NCROTAC
Introduction to Service Program for Older People (SPOP)
July 24, 12 - 1 pm, NYSACHO
The Impact Of Adherence In Patients With Bipolar I Disorder
July 24, 12 - 1 pm, PsychU
Resilience in Action: Navigating the Overdose Crisis with Limited Resources
July 24, 1 - 2 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Eating Disorder Awareness for School Providers
July 24, 1 - 2 pm, SAMHSA
Financing Models and Federal Resources for Enhancing and Sustaining Peer-Run and Recovery Organizations
July 24, 2 - 3 pm, SAMHSA
Ask the Expert: Understanding Stress, Distress and Trauma
July 24, 4 - 5 pm, NAMI
Utilizing Long-acting Medication as a First-tier Support for Serious Mental Illness
July 24, 1:30 - 3 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Law Enforcement and Public Health Collaboration
July 29, 12 - 1:30 pm, NCROTAC
What Youth Justice Leaders Should Know About Medicaid
July 29, 2 - 3 pm, Annie E. Casey Foundation
Aging and Addiction: Clinical Strategies for Supporting Older Adults with OUD and SUDs
July 30, 12:30 - 2 pm, NAADAC
How Humor Helps: Applying Humor With Stress
July 31, 11 am - 12:15 pm, Great Lakes ROTA-RC
A Public Health Approach: Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention Policies
July 31, 1:30 - 2:30 pm, NASMHPD
A Public Health Approach: Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention Policies
July 31, 1:30 - 3 pm, NASMHPD
Employment Supports: Advancing Opportunities for Recovery
July 31, 2 - 3 pm, SAMHSA
Your Rights in Mental Health Parity
August 4, 1 - 2 pm, NAMI
A Mental Health Moment: A Conversation Creating Culturally-Responsive Care for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Youth
August 5, 11 am - 12 pm, CTAC
From Theory to Therapy: The Evolution of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Psychosis in U.S. Mental Health Care
August 5, 2 - 3 pm, NASMHPD
Runaway & Homeless Youth in NYS: Services, Referrals, and Mental Health Integration Part 1
August 6, 10 - 11 am, CTAC
Crisis Intervention Teams: Partnering with Families of Loved Ones with Serious Mental Illness and Serious Emotional Disturbance
August 6, 2 - 3 pm, SAMHSA
Intergenerational Family Substance Misuse & Recovery
August 7, 2 - 3 pm, SAMHSA
Deepening Quality Improvement Efforts: Real-World Success Stories
August 14, 1 - 2 pm, Social Current
Stepping Up for Youth: Improving Behavioral Health Outcomes in the Juvenile Justice System
August 14, 2 - 3 pm, CSG Justice Center
The Science of Addiction and Recovery—A Father’s Perspective
August 14, 2 - 3 pm, SAMHSA
Strategies to Support Adults Experiencing Social Isolation and Loneliness
14, 2 - 4 pm, CTAC
From Crisis to Care: How CCBHCs are Revolutionizing MOUD Access
August 14, 3:30 - 4:30 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Black Men’s Mental Health Conference: Heal Brother, Heal
August 16, 9 am - 3 pm, IN-PERSON at the ETEC Building, University at Albany
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
Navigating the New Risk Environment: Top Compliance, Legal and Operational Challenges for Behavioral Health Providers
August 19, 12 - 1 pm, Behavioral Health Business
4th Annual School Mental Health Summer Academy
August 19 - 20, 8:30 am - 12 pm, School Mental Health Resource Training Center
Suicide and Substance Use Disorders: A Current Epidemic
August 20, 12 - 1:30 pm, NAADAC
Contracting to Provide Peer Services: Is Your Organization Ready?
August 20, 2 - 3 pm, SAMHSA
Legal Challenges and Alcohol Use Among Rural Youth
August 20, 3:30 - 4:30 pm, PCSS
2025 Suicide Prevention Summit - VIRTUAL
August 23 - 24, 9 am - 4:30 pm, Mental Health Academy
Solving the EHR Puzzle: Exclusive Data on Pain Points, Priorities & Platforms
August 28, 12 - 1 pm, Behavioral Health Business
Creating Optimal Access for OUD Services Utilizing Stages of Change
September 4, 3 - 4 pm, PCSS
Toward Whole-Person Care: Integrated Substance Use and Primary Care Integration
September 8, 2:30 - 4 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Runaway & Homeless Youth in NYS: Services, Referrals, and Mental Health Intersections Part 2
September 8, 2:30 - 4 pm, CTAC
Mental Health Awareness: Shedding Light on the Interplay between Suicide & Stigma
September 10, 12 - 1 pm, PsychU
The Essentials for Contracting: Models, Contract Negotiation, and Compliance for Peer Organizations
September 18, 2 - 3:30 pm, SAMHSA
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CLMHD CALENDAR
JULY
Mental Hygiene Planning Committee Meeting
July 26: 1 - 3 pm
AUGUST
Quarterly LGU Billing Staff Call
August 5: 11 am - 12 pm
CLMHD Executive Committee Meeting
August 6: 8 - 9 am
LGU Clinic Operators Call
August 12: 10 - 11:00 am
Addiction Services & Supports (ASR) Committee Meeting
August 14: 11 am - 12 pm
Mental Health Committee Meeting
August 14: 3 - 4 pm
Children & Families Committee Meeting
August 19: 11:30 am - 1 pm
Membership Call
August 20: 9 - 10:30 am
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