Member News
First Summit of Behavioral Health Leaders Post-Passage of HealthCare Reform: ACMHA Membership Identifies a Course of Action for the Future of Behavioral Healthcare (03/30/10)
ACMHA: The College for Behavioral Health Leadership (ACMHA) convened the first summit of behavioral health leaders since the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Pub. L. No. 111-148) on March 23, 2010. The summit in Santa Fe, NM March 24-26, 2010 assembled over 100 senior figures in the field of behavioral health, 25 emerging leaders, and 20 members of behavioral health peer leadership. Known for its commitment to research development and mentoring the next generation of behavioral health opinion shapers, ACMHA developed and oversaw a summit titled A New Era in Behavioral Health: Charting the Course. ACMHA 2010 Summit Chair Garrett Moran, PhD, Associate Director for Mental Health Research, Westat, noted that the "summit focused on identifying key strategies to effectively position behavioral health in the newly emerging healthcare marketplace."Central to the discussions was the role of primary care settings in the 21st century healthcare landscape and the opportunities and challenges provided to behavioral health in partnering with this workforce to acquire effective interventions, processes, and workforce talent. Recent efforts by ACMHA and others to align behavioral health and primary care support the statement by Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher that “there is no health without mental health.”
Emerging from the summit discussions was consensus around six domains that comprise the ACMHA platform: principles and values, services and systems, consumer and family roles and impacts, financing, partnership and collaboration, and workforce. According to summit facilitation team member Gail Hutchings, MPA, President and CEO of Behavioral Health Policy Collaborative, “A consensus emerged that our field must immediately identify and take action steps so that we do not miss out on present and emerging opportunities.”
The following are key action steps proposed by summit participants that the behavioral health field must immediately take to address the present and emerging opportunities offered by health care reform:
- Work to develop community-based person-centered health care homes that embrace recovery;
- Ensure evidence-based and promising mental health and substance use-related services are included in the new healthcare environment;
- Integrate behavioral health into all national health information technology initiatives;
- Include the voices and preferences of behavioral health consumers and peer leaders and those of their family members in the development and implementation of a new healthcare system;
- Guarantee behavioral health involvement in payment reform including the primary financing vehicles of health insurance exchanges and expanded Medicaid;
- Determine ways in which behavioral health can participate in new partnerships and collaborations that emerge in the new landscape including Accountable Healthcare Organization (AHO); and
- Develop a trained and culturally competent workforce to sufficient to address the full range of needs of diverse people with behavioral health issues across the lifespan.
ACMHA will closely monitor progress made on the proposed action steps as health reform is implemented. In the near term, a series of topical issue briefs will be developed along with a navigation guide as a way in which ACMHA and its members can impact the design and delivery of behavioral health services in the near future.
ACHMA Honors Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter for Improving the Mental Health and Addictions Recovery Treatment Field; Three other industry leaders honored for their work (03/25/10)
ACMHA: The College for Behavioral Health Leadership (ACMHA) today announced that former first lady Rosalynn Carter received the Saul Feldman Award for Lifetime Achievement for her leadership in improving the mental health and addictions recovery field. The award was presented at the 2010 ACMHA Summit.“Ms. Carter has worked for more than three decades to improve the quality of life for people around the world. Today, she is an advocate for mental health, early childhood immunization, human rights, and conflict resolution through her work at The Carter Center in Atlanta, Ga,” said Kris Ericson, Ph.D., ACHMA executive director. “The award recognizes her continued leadership in the fields of mental health and substance use policy, practice, and organizational development.”
ACMHA also presented three additional awards to industry leaders.
- Delia Olufokunbi Sam, PhD, the King Davis Award for Emerging Leadership in Promoting Diversity and Reducing Disparities. Dr. Olufokunbi Sam is a Scientific Review Officer at the National Institutes of Health Center for Scientific Review (CSR). The award recognized her tireless leadership in bringing health and behavioral health advocates together in the Whole Health Campaign, a multi-disciplinary effort dedicated to ensuring that behavioral issues receive full consideration in national dialogues related to healthcare, health reform, and health policy.
- Judi Chamberlain, the Timothy J. Coakley Behavioral Health Leadership Award. The Coakley Award honors consumer and family leaders in the behavioral health field whose work is characterized by the highest degree of integrity and a passion for creative approaches for improving the lives of mentally disabled persons, especially in the public sector. Judi Chamberlain, who died in January, was one of the country’s first and most vocal advocates for the rights of people with mental health conditions. She began her work in 1966, after a voluntary hospital admission for depression led her to experience the indignities and lack of rights accorded those with psychiatric diagnoses. She continued this work until her death from lung disease, founding the Mental Patients Liberation Front in Boston in the 1970s, and publishing the seminal book “On Our Own” in 1978.
- Colette Croze, MSW, the Walter Barton Distinguished Fellow award. The Barton Award honors an ACMHA member who has made outstanding and sustained contributions to the leadership of the College and to the field of behavioral health leadership and policy. A former state government administrator and Senior Consultant to the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD), her work has taken her across the country to numerous states and counties who have re-engineered public systems through the use of care management and risk arrangements with both public and private organizations.
“The contributions of these leaders have made a real difference in helping consumers reach their personal recovery and resilience goals,” said Ericson. “We would be poorer without their efforts to drive in the field forward in any number of ways. It is a pleasure for ACMHA to recognize and honor their accomplishments.”
During the annual Summit Pamela Hyde, administrator of the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and former New Mexico Secretary of Human Services, recognized the award winners and addressed the ACHMA leadership about the role of SAMHSA in charting the course for change in behavioral health. ACMHA has met annually in Santa Fe for the last decade and is the country’s premier forum for the exchange of new policy ideas that contribute to the improvement in the lives of people with mental health and substance use conditions and the systems that provide treatment and prevention services.
PS Blog Seeks Input (03/29/10)
OptumHealth Public Sector recently launched a blog that is dedicated to discussing issues and activities critical to creating effective change in public sector health care – from consumer empowerment to the creation of truly effective systems of care.The blog’s goal is to provide a unique place for dialogue around recovery and innovation in public sector healthcare. Guest commentary, provocative and under-noticed research findings, and real-time reports from innovations in the field provide the foundation. It covers a variety of areas that promote recovery and wellness, and embodies a commitment to ensuring everyone has the tools they need to support their own health and wellbeing.
OptumHealth invites ACMHA members to join and share YOUR perspective at http://psblog.optumhealth.com.