CMHS Consumer Affairs E-News
October 3, 2003, Vol. 03-89

HHS ANNOUNCEMENTS ON MENTAL HEALTH AND DISABILITY

HHS ANNOUNCES $1.5 MILLION TO PROMOTE EXEMPLARY MENTAL HEALTH PRACTICES IN COMMUNITIES

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced 10 one-year grants totaling $1.5 million to promote the adoption of exemplary mental health practices in communities around the country. These grants are designed to help support consensus building, infrastructure development, and training activities for the delivery of services to children with serious emotional disturbance, adults with serious mental illness and those with co-occurring substance disorders.

"The President's Commission on Mental Health called on HHS to encourage scientific mental health treatment," Secretary Thompson said. "These grants will further that goal by building capacity in local communities."

These awards are being administered by HHS' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The grants are awarded under Phase II of SAMHSA's Community Action Grant Program. Phase I supported the development of consensus among key stakeholders within the applicant's community. Phase II supports implementation through training, program adaptation and evaluation. The two phases of the Community Action Grant program operate in sequence to ensure that tested, effective and documented exemplary practices get the endorsement and support of the community the program intends to serve prior to actual implementation.

"These grants are designed to test and evaluate exemplary programs in new settings with various ethnic, geographic and other populations. Our goal is an independent life for everyone within the circle of friends and family," SAMHSA Administrator Charles G. Curie said.

Grantees include:

Rural Crisis Intervention Team, Blacksburg, Virginia - $149,692. This grant will implement a rural, multi-jurisdictional program known as the Crisis Intervention Team practice. This program involves police intervention in mental health crises in order to divert persons with mental illness away from the justice system and into appropriate community-based mental health service programs.

Council for Jewish Elderly, Chicago, Illinois - $149, 863. This program will adapt the Gatekeeper Model of Case-Finding At-Risk Older Adults in metropolitan Chicago. The Gatekeeper model includes identification, recruitment and training of community Gatekeepers and the development of an integrated, coordinated mental health, aging and social service response system to meet the needs of community-dwelling, at-risk older adults.

Center for Common Concerns Inc., San Francisco, California - $150,000 This grant will implement multi disciplinary mobile outreach teams using the Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) model to serve chronically homeless people with mental illnesses and co-occurring disorders.

Concord Counseling Services, Westerville, Ohio - $150,000 This grant will implement a modified Village Integrated Services Agency (ISA) model to serve adults with serious mental illness who also have histories of homelessness, hospitalization, incarceration, and/or co-existing substance abuse. The ISA model is designed to strengthen adults' abilities while lessening their disabilities.

Department of Family Studies, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland - $149,690. This grant will provide services to include job training, and training in independent living skills for persons living with mental illness who are without support from their families. The program is expected to improve skills for coping with schizophrenia, reduce symptoms and likelihood of relapse, reduce family members' experienced burdens, and improve family relations.

Indiana University, Indianapolis, Indiana - $149,818. The purpose of this grant is to implement an Integrated Dual Disorders Treatment (IDDT) model and demonstrate this model in 2 new sites. IDDT is a treatment model that combines intensive mental health and substance abuse services for consumers with severe mental illness and co-occurring substance use disorders.

New Jersey Mental Health Institute Inc., Mercerville, New Jersey - $150,000 This project will implement the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill's evidence-based, exemplary practice, Family-to-Family educational program. The twelve-week, two-and-one half hour per week program will be implemented at ten locations within nine urban communities spanning six different counties in New Jersey.

New York Mental Health Association, Albany, New York - $150,000. This grant will implement the Individual Placement & Support Program in Columbia-Greene counties in New York. The goal is enable adults living with severe mental illnesses to realize long-term employment success.

Cayuga County Safe Schools/Healthy Students, Auburn, New York - $150,000. This grant will expand the Intensive Supervision Conditional Discharge (ISCD) program that offers alternatives to incarceration or juvenile detention for chronic youthful offenders. It is based on the exemplary practice of Multisystemic Therapy.

Advocacy Initiative Network of Maine, Bangor, Maine - $150,000. This grant will implement Voice and Choice, a project designed to ensure full consumer partnership in planning and operating Maine's system of mental health and support services.

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HHS AWARDS $33 MILLION TO STATES, OTHER ORGANIZATIONS TO HELP PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson has announced more than $33 million in grants to states and other organizations to help develop programs for people with disabilities or long-term illnesses. The Real Choice Systems Change Grants for Community Living will help states and territories enable people with disabilities to reside in their homes and participate fully in community life.

"These grants will help people with disabilities exercise meaningful choices about how and where to live their lives," Secretary Thompson said. "They reflect our strong commitment to remove barriers to equality for the 54 million Americans living with disabilities under President Bush's New Freedom Initiative."

In 2001, President Bush launched the New Freedom Initiative, which promotes the goal of community living for people with disabilities. Under this initiative, 10 federal agencies have collaborated to remove barriers to community living. Secretary Thompson last year established the HHS Office on Disability to lead the HHS agencies in addressing the New Freedom Initiative.

Grants awarded today are intended to provide states and other eligible entities with funding to make lasting improvements to their home and community-based services programs. The awards build on the roughly $125 million in grants awarded in the previous two years to help states improve their community-based services.

A total of 75 grants were announced today in 10 categories:

• Quality assurance and quality improvement in home and community based services
• "Money follows the person" initiative
• Independence Plus initiative
• Community-integrated personal assistance services and supports
• National state-to-state technical assistance program for community living
• Family-to-family health care information and education centers
• Community-based treatment alternatives for children
• Respite care for children
• Technical assistance for consumer task forces
• Respite care for adults

A list of the grants announced is available at http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2003pres/20031002a.html. More information about the grants and the New Freedom Initiative is available at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/newfreedom.

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HHS LAUNCHES DEMONSTRATIONS TO RECRUIT AND RETAIN PERSONAL ASSISTANCE WORKERS TO HELP PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced five new demonstration grants aimed at helping recruit, train and retain direct service workers, who provide personal assistance to people with disabilities who need help with eating, bathing, dressing and other activities of daily living.

Grants totaling nearly $6 million will be distributed to pay for the demonstrations, three of which will test offering health insurance benefits to workers to determine if that helps keep workers on the job.

"We need to find ways to keep these hardworking, dedicated caregivers on the job," Secretary Thompson said. "Hopefully, these demonstration projects will identify ways to allow more caregivers to stay in the profession and encourage more qualified people to provide this essential care and services."

A part of the President's New Freedom Initiative, the Demonstration to Improve the Direct Service Community Workforce will grant $1.4 million each to the New Mexico Department of Health, the Maine Governor's Office of Health Policy and Finance and Pathways for the Future, a service provider in North Carolina. Each of these grantees will be offering health insurance to direct service workers during the three-year demonstration. Grants of $680,500 each will go to the University of Delaware and Volunteers of America in Louisiana for developing educational materials, training of service workers, mentorship programs and other activities.

"These personal assistance workers are the backbone of the nation's community-based long-term care system, and should have the same access to health insurance and other work incentives as millions of working Americans," CMS Administrator Tom Scully said. "Through these demonstrations we hope to be able to attract and retain more of them."

In 2001, President Bush launched the New Freedom Initiative, which promotes the goal of removing barriers to community living for people with disabilities. Under this initiative, 10 federal agencies have collaborated to remove barriers to community living. Secretary Thompson last year established the HHS Office on Disability to lead HHS agencies in addressing the New Freedom Initiative.

More information about this program and the President's New Freedom Initiative is available at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/newfreedom.