September-October 2018

ZIA NEWS – September-October, 2018

Fall Activities:

There has been an explosion of activity, including international events, this fall, and more to come!

Interdepartmental Serious Mental Illness Coordinating Committee:

Dr. Minkoff worked with the non-federal members of ISMICC to help organize several activities to support the implementation of the ISMICC recommendations:

  • Monthly phone calls to plan for the December 11 full in person ISMICC meeting, working on promoting involvement of non-federal members in contributing to the implementation workgroups, and planning how to measure and report on overall ISMICC progress.
  • Coordinating linkage between SAMHSA leadership and non-federal ISMICC members, as identified co-lead (with Conni Wells) of the non-federal ISMICC group
  • Working with the Crisis Workgroup on the recommendation to implement LOCUS and CALOCUS as standard tools for level of care assessment nationwide.
  • Recommending inclusion of SMI and SED populations in the surveillance priorities of CDC.

National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare: ZiaPartners is an Affiliate Member of National Council, and Dr. Minkoff is a member of the Medical Director’s Institute. Dr. Minkoff represented Zia at the National Council fall meeting on October 22. This resulted in a further discussion of how National Council aligns with ISMICC recommendations, as well as how ZiaPartners will participate in the NATCON 2019 conference in Nashville March 24-27.

Institute on Psychiatric Services, Chicago, IL: Oct 3-6. ZiaPartners attended this conference, and provided 4 presentations, attendance at the American Association of Community Psychiatrists Board Meeting, and attendance at the National Council Medical Directors Institute. The presentations included one on ISMICC, one on how to publish in Psychiatric Services (where Dr. Minkoff is a column editor for the High Value Care column), a symposium on the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry Committee on Psychiatry and the Community publication: People with Mental Illness in the Criminal Justice System, Answering a Cry for Help, Dr. Minkoff is committee co-chair, and a presentation with Dr. Margie Balfour on ideal crisis system development.

Dr. Minkoff is Chair of the Product and Services Plan for AACP. The Plank is working on several Clinical Tips, including Medication Assisted Treatment for opioid use disorder, and a guidance document for Utilization Management.

Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute:   Dr. Cline and Dr. Minkoff continued active involvement in multiple projects and activities conducted by Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, as follows:

  • Finalizing the Houston Endowment substance use disorder System report following submission of the first draft to the funder.
  • Coordinating with the Local Systems team regarding how to best support progress in a variety of local system consultations
  • Working with Dr. Seema Shah to discuss statewide efforts to improve primary health/behavioral health integration for children, and to develop statewide academic partnerships regarding research and services.
  • Participating with Sam Shore on the HHSC-MMHPI workgroup on substance use disorder services, focusing on data accuracy and policy recommendations for sober living and expansion of opioid use disorder services.
  • Supporting implementation of a Texas TA team to work with the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry on statewide TA for MAT, as part of the national STR-TA initiative.
  • Working with Coby Chase and Michelle Harper to organize the events related to children, youth, and early intervention services during the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute’s visit to London for the Global Mental Health Summit in early October (See Below).
  • Planning attendance representing Meadow Mental Health Policy Institute at the One Mind Conference in St. Helena, CA in September (See below)
  • Working with Susan Fordice and Sam Shore to develop the substance use disorder track for the third annual Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute Engage and Excel Conference (Houston, Oct 23-25) (engageandexcel.org). (See below)
  • Working with LDWW on the development of materials for the next phase of Okay to Say: (Okay to Share; Okay to Care).

Follow MMHPI at www.texastateofmind.org

Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute related events:

  • One Mind Conference, Staglin Family Vineyards, Napa, Ca (September 12-15): Dr. Minkoff and Dr. Cline, along with Dr. Andy Keller (MMHPI CEO) represented MMHPI at this series of events. The Staglin Family has raised millions for brain research and other initiatives and this event brings together policy makers and scientists to develop major change efforts. There were events focused on creating an international movement for workplace mental health, as well as an international strategy for brain health research.
    • For more information about One Mind, click here.
  • Global Summit for Mental Health Culture Change, London, England (October 7-11): Minkoff and Dr. Cline were part of the MMHPI leadership team that attended this event, where Dr. Keller was a panelist. They helped to organize visits and events that allowed for collaboration with and learning from expertise in the UK, with particular regard to early intervention services for psychosis.
    • For more information on the Global Summit, click here.
  • Engage and Excel, Houston, TX (October 23-25): Minkoff and Dr. Cline presented and facilitated at this third annual statewide event that they helped to create and design. The event brings together people working on BH systems change from local communities and state entities all over TX to engage in a partnership for how to excel in their systems back home. Dr. Minkoff and Dr. Cline presented with Houston provider leaders on implementing integrated services for individuals with co-occurring mental health/substance use disorders.
    • For more information on Engage and Excel, click here.

CALM:   Planned and implemented the final on site consultation visit on October 29-30. This visit focused on the successes in implementing culture change at CALM, in the direction of trauma-informed organization delivering trauma specific services to youth and families. Focal discussions involved:

  • Strengthening the functional organization chart going forward
  • Implementing a continuous quality improvement culture
  • Helping to launch the CALM Action Team, with participation by staff and leadership
  • Improving the level of support and engagement of Regional Managers and Program Managers
  • Reviewing strategies for improving revenue generation, third party billing, and documentation, that may result in an increase of over $100,000 of collections in this fiscal year.
  • Reviewing methodology for evaluating the performance of various programs for purpose of strategic prioritization
  • Revision of the HR Employee Handbook from the perspective of a trauma-informed organization

Tennessee Co-occurring Strategic Initiative: Begun implementation of a series of webinars to engage new participants in the statewide co-occurring capability development process, particularly SUD programs working with criminal justice.

Vermont Co-operative for Practice Improvement and Innovation (VCPI): Dr. Minkoff continues working with the VCPI leadership team to develop a working leadership and operations structure for VCPI, and will be working with VCPI and partners to expand co-occurring MH/SUD services, with a focus on adults with SMI and Opioid Use Disorder. (Link to vtcpi.org)

Mid-Hudson (NY) Region Co-occurring Initiative: Dr. Minkoff has continued detailed planning, organizing the November events, which so far includes a conference on November 13 for co-occurring capability implementation teams from all seven counties in the region, and individual county meetings with Westchester and Putnam on November 14.

Common Ground: Continued consultation to assist in the development of improved capacity for Common Ground to deliver the highest possible quality comprehensive crisis service array in Oakland County, Michigan. In July the focus of activity was to work with Common Ground on completion of a response to an RFP to develop a comprehensive continuum of crisis services in Detroit-Wayne County, Proposal interview was conducted in September, but unfortunately the RFP was withdrawn in October.

Iowa East Central Region: ZiaPartners initiated a consultation activity with the MHDS East Central Region (including 9 counties with three regional hubs in Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, and Dubuque). This has involved a specific focus on working with the Dubuque hub to plan their network of Access Center services. In addition, ZiaPartners has subcontracted with Brenda Jackson to assist all the regions with how to strategize on their relationship with Iowa Medicaid.

Solano County, CA: Dr. Minkoff gave a very well received presentation on September 20 in Fairfield, CA at the Solano County Recovery Day event to help launch a county initiative on integrating mental health/substance use disorder.

Silver Hill Hospital – ZiaPartners has contracted with Silver Hill (located in New Canaan, CT) to provide assistance with continuing implementation of the transformational recommendations from our April visit, to implement a collaborative culture to facilitate admissions, transitions, and staff engagement. The first on site visit in this phase of the work occurred on September 26-27 and resulted in increased buy in from across the hospital, and specific next step activities to translate the general recommendations into a variety of improvement projects, some of which were launched immediately. Improvement activities focused on creating a more welcoming experience for patients, families, and referents, and involve collaboration between Access, Marketing, and Treatment units.

College for Behavioral Health Leadership – As a Board member, Dr. Minkoff has been contributing to launching a new set of CBHL activities that will allow the organization to operate on a much bigger scale and will attract resources for the development of materials to “make leaders better” across multiple sectors and boundaries within the universe of behavioral health service delivery. Dr. Minkoff participated in the CBHL Board meeting on September 25, at which a new strategy was decided, and will be working on helping to seek funding to support the “big new vision” for the organization.

SAMHSA – Dr. Minkoff was asked by SAMHSA to coordinate a day long panel meeting on Co-occurring Serious Mental Illness and Opioid Use Disorders on August 23. The forum incorporated input from NASMHPD, NACBHDDD, National Council, CCBHCs, CMHCs, and various BH provider disciplines, including peers. The objective was to identify what is known about how to help individuals with serious mental illness/opioid use disorders and how to implement what we know more systematically across the nation.   There was follow up planning in September, and there will be a report prepared on the results of the panel.

 

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