';
CLOSE
Tags Posts tagged with "National Council for Mental Wellbeing"

National Council for Mental Wellbeing

0 1254

As reported by the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, the Senate last night passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, critical legislation to dramatically increase funding for mental health programs and reduce the threat and incidence of violence in America.

Introduced by Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas), the bill provides funding to increase access to mental health and substance use services, notably through expanding Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) nationwide. This will connect considerably more people to lifesaving care, while helping support and grow the mental health and substance use treatment workforce.

The bill also includes aid to broaden access to telehealth services and mental health awareness programs, such as Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), and provides additional funding for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline ahead of next month’s 988 implementation, which will help save lives and provide needed support to strengthen the capacity of our crisis care system.

Given the speed the bill is moving, the National Council created an excellent initial analysis of the bill and its potential impact.

Key provisions include:

  • Expanding the CCBHC program to allow any state or territory the opportunity to apply to participate in the demonstration and allocating additional planning grant monies for states to develop proposals to participate;
    • Starting in July 2024, and every two years thereafter, 10 additional states will be selected to join the demonstration.
    • The eight original demonstration sites will be extended until September 2025, and the two newer demo states (Kentucky and Michigan) are extended to six years after their program launch.
  • $250 million for the Community Mental Health Services Block Grant;
  • $120 million in additional funding for mental health awareness training programs;
  • $150 million in additional funding for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline for FY 2022; and
  • New requirements for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide guidance to states on how they can increase access to care via telehealth under Medicaid and CHIP, including strategies related to training and providing resources for providers and patients.

If you have questions, please contact your RCPA Policy Director.

0 673
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

RCPA hopes that you found the National Council on Mental Wellbeing’s Hill Day at Home 2022 a valuable experience. This year’s focus supported the initiatives that are affecting our organizations and delivery of services to vulnerable consumers across Pennsylvania and our nation.

Be sure to check out the overview from Hill Day at Home 2022 that outlines the issues, impacts, strategies, and “The Ask” from our legislators and stakeholders. These include:

  • Fulfilling the Promise of 988;
  • Support for the Expansion of Certified Community Behavioral Health Centers (CCBHCs);
  • Curbing the Nation’s Substance Use Crisis; and
  • Addressing the Mental Health & Substance Abuse Treatment Workforce in America.

RCPA will continue to collaborate with the National Council and our members to advocate for these and other critical initiatives.

If you have any questions, please contact your RCPA Policy Director.

0 889

Today, the National Council for Mental Wellbeing released the results of its first comprehensive consumer survey on access to mental health and substance use care, showing there are significant unmet needs, far more than physical health needs.

Results from the 2022 Access to Care survey, conducted by The Harris Poll, show a staggering 43 percent of U.S. adults who say they needed substance use or mental health care in the past 12 months but did not receive that care. They identified numerous barriers that stand between them and needed treatment. You can download the full survey results here.

0 898

Considering the increasing rates of overdose deaths in the United States and to ensure that all people have access to a robust continuum of care and evidence-based services to improve their health, the National Council for Mental Wellbeing continues to build support for a wide range of overdose prevention and harm reduction strategies. A few program and resource examples of this include:

In addition to funding 16 harm reduction pilot projects and efforts to increase the number of sites next year as well as to branch out to mental health and substance use treatment partners, the National Council has also recently become a partner of the National Harm Reduction Technical Assistance (TA) Center.

National Council is conducting a survey and key informant interviews to better understand how to inform program implementation with its members. National Council requests that respondents complete this survey to help the organization understand the technical assistance needs related to harm reduction among prevention, treatment, and recovery organizations. The survey should take no longer than 10 minutes to complete and is anonymous.

By completing this survey by close of business June 3, respondents will also have the chance to enter an optional raffle to win a free registration for NatCon23, the National Council’s annual conference, which is being held in Los Angeles, CA.

Please contact Yoon Hyung Choi with any questions or to express interest in being interviewed as a key informant.

0 936

The National Council for Mental Wellbeing will host Overdose Prevention Across the Continuum of Care: Strategies from the Field, the first of a two-part series, from 3:30 pm–5:00 pm on Monday, March 21. You can register for the event here.

Presenters will discuss a range of evidence-based strategies that have been successfully implemented across the continuum of care to prevent overdose and improve the health of people who use drugs and have substance use disorders, including those with co-occurring serious mental illness.

0 1297

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued a favorable advisory opinion regarding contingency management (CM), an evidence-based approach for treating substance use disorders (SUD) that uses financial incentives to reward healthy behavior, such as abstinence and treatment retention, according to the National Council for Mental Wellbeing.

CM has been shown to be an effective approach for those with SUD in more than 100 randomized controlled trials over 50 years. Evidence shows it can double abstinence rates across opioids, stimulants, alcohol, tobacco, and nicotine, compared to usual care alone. It is the most effective and most evidence-based treatment for stimulant use disorders. In 2021, the Biden Administration declared advancing CM among its drug policy priorities.

The advisory opinion clears the way for CM for routine use in publicly funded substance use treatment programs and healthcare facilities under federal reimbursement, including Medicaid.

Read the full press release.

0 1010

The National Council for Mental Wellbeing, with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, conducted an environmental scan to determine how overdose prevention and response efforts are currently implemented in community corrections. This effort included a literature review, 19 key informant interviews, and a roundtable discussion with a diverse group of individuals with experience in community corrections, overdose prevention, or harm reduction.

Key findings, along with the full report, are available on the National Council’s website.

Prev1...456Next Page 5 of 6
© 2021 - Rehabilitation & Community Providers Association