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Mental Health

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will conduct in-person public listening sessions to receive additional input concerning the practice of telemedicine with regards to controlled substances and potential safeguards that could effectively prevent and detect diversion of controlled substances prescribed via telemedicine. Specifically, the DEA is inviting anyone interested to comment at the listening sessions about allowing telemedicine prescribing of certain controlled substances without an in-person medical evaluation.

The listening sessions will be held from 9:00 am – 5:30 pm on Tuesday, September 12, and Wednesday, September 13, at DEA Headquarters, 700 Army Navy Drive, Arlington, VA 22202.

Those wishing to attend the listening sessions in person or give an oral presentation at the listening sessions must complete and submit the appropriate attendance form available at DEA’s Diversion Control Division website no later than August 21.

The listening sessions will also be livestreamed online.

Read the Department of Justice/DEA’s full letter for more details.

Message from the National Council for Mental Wellbeing:

Last week we reached out asking you to write to your congressional representatives in support of the 988 Implementation Act. We wanted to pop back into your inbox with a critical opportunity we have to expand the network connecting people to mental health and substance use care across the country.

The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline has successfully served millions of people. But there is more work to do, and we need your support to do it. Support from you and your representative will go a long way that our crisis care system provides people in every community with someone to respond and somewhere to go if we hope to fulfill the promise of 988.

As a reminder it will only take 2 minutes to show your support. Here is why it’s paramount that your representatives support this legislation, 988 Implementation Act:

  1. Expands behavioral health workforce training programs and provides grant opportunities for local behavioral health centers;
  2. Expands Medicaid coverage for behavioral health services, including short term crisis intervention services;
  3. Increases support for mobile crisis response, ensuring that even those in rural areas have access to timely care;
  4. Creates new capital grants to be used for crisis response program facility renovation, construction, and expansion;
  5. Narrows the IMD exclusion so that services furnished in psychiatric acute care crisis beds administered by CCBHCs and other crisis care settings are eligible for Medicaid coverage; and
  6. Increases awareness of 988 through a national media campaign.

Contact your Congressional Representatives and urge them to support the 988 Implementation Act. By strengthening, and raising awareness for current resources, and building capacity at the state level for these on the ground crisis services, this legislation will make a difference, and save the lives of your friends, neighbors, and community members in crisis. Time is of the essence. Act today, and together we can strengthen the crisis care continuum.

Thank you for your advocacy.

Sincerely,
Rachel Abraham
Federal Policy and Advocacy Coordinator
The National Council for Mental Wellbeing

Summer is flying by, and so, too, is the opportunity for early bird registration rates for the 2023 RCPA Annual Conference A Decade of Unity! Early bird rates end Friday, September 8, so be sure to register today and claim your seat, your hotel room, and your discount! View the full brochure for details as well as information on our roster of workshops, keynote speakers, and plenary sessions. You’ll be able to earn CEs from workshops such as:

  • Getting Past the First Meeting to the Contract Negotiation
    • Learn how to present a solution in health and human services to health plan payors based on what the payor needs and looks for.
  • Bridging Generational Differences in the Workplace
    • Explore the generational diversity in your workforce and how to leverage each generation’s strengths to your competitive advantage.
  • Transforming Organizational Wellness and Self-Advocacy Through an Evidenced-Based Practice: Improving the Lives of Employees and Individuals in Our Care
    • Identify the benefits of and methods for implementing a wellness program to improve employee wellness and support consumers and families served in MH/IDA.
  • Revealing the Potential of Smart Home Technologies for People With Disabilities Through Research and Resources
    • Examine smart home technologies, their uses for people with disabilities, and the expanding field of research and resources for the tech.
  • Our HAIR (Health Access Initiative for Recovery): Making a Difference With Health Equity
    • Listen to an in-depth overview of Community Care’s “Our HAIR” program, which was developed as a targeted intervention to address racial disparities in access to behavioral health care.
  • Implementing and Sustaining Evidence-Based Practices
    • Develop evidence-based practices for childhood trauma via CenClear’s Healing After Trauma program.
  • Selective Contracting or Managed Care: Either One Will Change Your World
    • Learn about the impact selective contracting and managed long-term services & supports will have on the IDD community.
  • Findings on Stakeholder Engagement for the PA Master Plan for Older Adults
    • Discuss what the Master Plan is intended to accomplish and learn of preliminary findings from the stakeholder engagement process.
Register today!

In addition to an impressive roster of speakers, our 2023 Conference will have an exciting array of sponsors and exhibitors. We thank those who have signed on thus far! If you are interested in sponsoring or exhibiting, visit here for more details or contact Carol Ferenz, Conference Coordinator, with any questions you may have. Keep up-to-date and register today for #rcpaconf!