November 2017

Activities in November

Interdepartmental Serious Mental Illness Coordinating Committee:  During November, the ISMICC report was finalized and is scheduled for public release at the next ISMICC meeting, which will be broadcast from Washington DC on December 14. Stay tuned for more information on how to access this live stream broadcast.  Dr. Minkoff will be attending this meeting by teleconference.

Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry:  Committee on Psychiatry and the Community:  As co-chair of this committee comprised of national leaders in community psychiatry, along with Judge Steven Leifman of Miami-Dade County District Court and the Miami-Dade Managing Entity (South Florida Provider Coalition), Dr. Minkoff is helping the Committee align its current project on designing an “ideal behavioral health system” with the potential for implementation represented by ISMICC.  During the most recent GAP meeting (November 9-11), the Committee decided to focus on publishing a framing document for this work during 2018 and to develop a specific set of criteria for an ideal CRISIS system as a first important step in addressing this issue.

Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute: Houston Endowment Substance Use Disorder System Assessment of Houston/Harris County:  Continued work this month on researching best practices for Substance Use Disorder prevention and treatment services, and working with the project team on finalizing the creation of a framework for the “ideal Substance Use Disorder system of care” that will form the backbone of the report and recommendations for this project.  The “ideal Substance Use Disorder system of care” is represented in a visual diagram that illustrates the links between “Life in the Community,” prevention, early intervention, integration of Substance Use Disorder services in primary health care, co-occurring capable specialty care in Substance Use Disorders, Mental Health, and specialty health settings of all kinds, and ongoing recovery coaching and recovery support. Dr. Minkoff and Dr. Cline have helped to draft policy recommendations for Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute to submit for consideration to the Texas legislative select committee on Substance Use Disorders.

Follow MMHPI at www.texastateofmind.org

Mid-Hudson Region Seven County Collaboration to Implement CCISC:  On November 13-14, ZiaPartners facilitated a very successful launch of a seven-county regional project to launch welcoming, co-occurring capable systems of care in Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester counties in NY.    Approximately 150 people, representing 7 county teams, with coordination by Marcie Colon of the Mid-Hudson Regional Coalition, and participation from state representatives, representatives from the other regional coalitions in NY, and from the state-funded Center for Practice Innovations at Columbia University, attended this two-day event in Fishkill, NY. Each county team learned about how to implement universal co-occurring capability in their county system and committed to take action based on next steps identified in this event.   This is the largest such effort ever in NY State and the first time in any state that seven counties have launched a regional collaboration all at once, without state direction.   Stephanie Marquesano, of the Harris Project, provided an impassioned keynote speech in honor of her son, Harris, who suffered from co-occurring disorders and died of an overdose because of lack of availability of integrated treatment. Stephanie’s tireless advocacy and training efforts played a significant role in creating the momentum that led to this event.

Criminal Justice-Behavioral Health Forum:  Massachusetts Association of Mental Health/Blue Cross-Blue Shield Foundation:  On November 9, Dr. Minkoff was one of three national panelists at this important event to raise awareness and organize statewide action to address the growing numbers of individuals in Massachusetts correctional settings with mental illness and/or substance use disorders.  The other panelists were Andrew Keller, Ph.D, CEO of the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, and Judge Steven Leifman from Miami, the nation’s leading judge in advocating for improved Behavioral Health services to keep people out of the criminal justice system.  Dr. Minkoff’s topic focused on describing the recent GAP publication:  People with Mental Illness in the Criminal Justice System: Answering a Cry for Help (APPI, 2016), and discussing a framework for how to provide integrated services to individuals with co-occurring mental health, substance use, and criminal justice needs, as well as other complex challenges.

National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) Criminal Justice Policy Forum:   On November 16, Dr. Minkoff and Dr. Cline participated with two dozen other invited national leaders in a day-long meeting in Arlington, VA to develop actionable strategies for helping NAMI to support its local chapters in advocating effectively for addressing the challenges facing people with mental illness in the criminal justice system.   Mary Giliberti, NAMI’s Executive Director, is also a member of ISMICC.  Pete Earley, author of Crazy: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness, about his son’s experiences with mental illness in the criminal justice system, and also an ISMICC member, was another one of the attendees.  

Alberta Health Services Concurrent Capability Project:  During the past seven years, Alberta Health Services has gradually developed a provincial strategy for using the ZiaPartners’ CCISC toolkit to enhance concurrent disorder capability across all provincial behavioral health services. The designated Concurrent Capable Review Service is a Provincial Addiction and Mental Health service that provides support to leaders and programs who want to access and make planned improvements towards welcoming, recovery-oriented and concurrent capable care. In November, the Concurrent Capable Review Service Team released materials that demonstrated the results of their process to date, with penetration into 3 of the 5 “zones” in the province, and plans for expansion into the other zones in the coming year or two.   They gave permission for ZiaPartners to post their results and materials for others to take advantage of, with the proviso that the involved zones were “de-identified” as Zone A and Zone B instead of their actual names.  The main contact person at AHS regarding this material is Jackie Clark.   She and her team have done an amazing job making systemic progress and envision continued advances ahead as more Zones join the effort.

Review Poster for IOS Conference
Flip Chart
 Compass EZ Facilitators Guide
Compass EZ Participant Handout

NEW PROJECT ANNOUNCEMENT!!!   ZiaPartners is pleased to announce that we have been awarded a consulting contract to assist Child Abuse Listening Mediation, Inc (CALM), a trauma-informed child abuse prevention and intervention agency serving Santa Barbara County. The focus of the consultation (which will begin in January) will be helping CALM at all levels of the organization to improve its organizational policies and processes, including revenue enhancement and revenue generation, while maintaining and enhancing its trauma-informed culture, and engaging and empowering all levels of staff as change agents in the process of cultural transformation of the agency.  Dr. Minkoff and Dr. Cline are pleased as well to be joined on the consultation team by Kathy Sternbach and Jack Peters from TriWest Group, to contribute specific expertise on IT, billing, claims management, supervision, and organizational infrastructure.

 

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