Remarks by
A. Kathryn Power, M.Ed.
Director
Center for Mental Health Services
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
2007 Joint National Conference on Mental Health Block Grant and National Conference on Mental Health Statistics
May 30, 2007
Washington, DC
Thank you, Dr. Berry, for that generous introduction.
I want to welcome everyone to Washington, DC, a town that is known for its “movers and shakers.” As our State mental health planners and data representatives, you are the true movers and shakers in the transformation of our mental health care system. As data specialists, you work through the numbers and identify the data that presents us with new challenges. As planners, you turn these challenges into opportunities to set new goals and move plans into action. It’s because of movers and shakers, like you, that we are moving transformation forward.
The future of our public mental health system lies in these challenges and opportunities. Both transformation SIG states and non-transformation SIG States alike, are working day-in and day-out to make tremendous change across the country. I will be sharing some of the transformative activities that are occurring across the country with you in just a few minutes. But first, I want to thank Dr. Berry and her staff for their ongoing work in making this program such a success. It’s core programs like these—the mental health block grants—that fuel our engines and move us toward a transformed system of care. None of this would be possible without them…or without all of you here today—coming together…doing your part…using critical data to guide the plans for our future mental health system. I applaud all the important work you do in helping our country achieve the goals of transformation.
We were all shaken last year when we learned the startling news that persons with serious mental illnesses die 25 years younger than the general population…not 10-15 years, like previous studies reported…but 25 years. The disparity in years of life lost has worsened over the past 20 years!
Reported in the Study on Mental Health Performance Measures funded by SAMHSA and the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors, the data showed that male consumers are likely to die at 53 years of age and female consumers at age 59. The reasons: Both chronic physical illnesses and suicide are causes. Examining the data even further, we find that more persons with serious mental illnesses die earlier of heart disease, hypertension, stroke, diabetes and other general medical conditions than die of suicide.
The implications of these statistics for the Nation are profound. How will we ever help people with mental illnesses recover if we can’t keep them alive and healthy? This trend cannot continue. This is a problem that we can do something about…that we must do something about. Whether we are in federal, state or local government, we all have a stake in this. This is a shared problem demanding a shared solution.
We must accept and embrace the fact that we are not just treating mental disorders. We’re treating people…real men, women and children who are walking through our doors with a host of real problems behind them. Research suggests, and our own practice confirms, that each of these individual’s best hope for recovery lies in integrated, whole-person centered, recovery-focused care. The question is no longer if we need to be prepared to deliver this kind of treatment…but how can we best prepare ourselves to meet this challenge. The opportunity exists to create a holistic health care system where providers and consumers, in partnership, develop individualized plans of care that respond to the whole person and his or her comprehensive needs to achieve wellness.
Opportunities to transform mental health care in these ways are limited only by our potential for innovation. Benjamin and Rosamund Zander, authors of “The Art of Possibility,” a book about transforming our professional and personal lives, reveal “…many of the circumstances that block us in our daily lives may only appear to do so based on a framework of assumptions we carry with us. Draw a different frame around the same set of circumstances and new pathways come into view. Find the right framework and extraordinary accomplishment becomes an everyday experience.”
I’m pleased to say that States across the country are doing just that. Several have found different ways to frame some of the more difficult challenges of transformation and come up with new and creative approaches to make its services more consumer- driven and focused on recovery. Some are doing this by reframing their laws. Some are reframing their programs. Others are changing their frame of mind.
Washington, Connecticut, New Mexico and Texas…have enacted new legislation in support of transformation. In fact, Texas has enacted 22 pieces of legislation into law that mandated transformation of the health and human service delivery system across the State. In this process, a new health and human service enterprise was created which streamlined a system of 12 separate agencies into four.
New Mexico has been extremely innovative in changing the processes involved in financing a transformation-driven mental health services. This State enacted legislation to implement a purchasing collaborative to streamline what was a fragmented and uncoordinated array of services into a single entity. This new process allows New Mexico State agencies to work together to provide and pay for comprehensive services in a coordinated way.
Ohio is at the forefront of building infrastructure for transformation. This includes aligning and gaining commitments from major stakeholders, developing lasting structures for cross-agency collaboration, adoption of evidence-based practices, and workforce development. Ohio is also looking to use cost-savings realized in the transformation process to help continue to sustain this new approach over time.
Oklahoma has launched a major transformation initiative with the introduction of its “Innovation Center.” The Innovation Center provides technical assistance for the 10 partnering agencies on the Governor’s Transformation Advisory Board. It helps establish and support project partnerships, develops leadership, identifies research-based practices, develops rapid prototype programs, and plans large-scale implementation. The Center demonstrates Oklahoma’s strong commitment to build a solid yet flexible infrastructure to transform its mental health systems.
The State of Washington has developed a new organizational structure for their Mental Health Transformation Incentive Grant that is separate from the Mental Health division— placing responsibility for the grant in the office of the Governor. Its goal: to facilitate more efficient cross-agency collaboration. Washington wants to ensure that no one agency or department has full responsibility for transformation, but rather, that it is seen as a State-wide effort with support from leadership at the highest levels. Through this collaborative, led by the Governor’s office, each agency will leverage its strengths, expertise and knowledge.
Oregon’s Affordable Housing program is an exemplary housing initiative providing integrated housing resources for people with serious mental illnesses. Its efforts are now being expanded by a new community mental health housing fund that was established by the sale of a former State hospital property. So far, Oregon has made more than 200 new community placements. Tennessee is another example of a State that has made tremendous progress with its challenge to ensure adequate housing is available to its citizens. Tennessee’s housing level for individuals with mental illnesses now is among our Nation’s best.
South Dakota has focused a lot of its transformation efforts on employment opportunities resulting in a 41 percent employment rate for consumers. States can find strategic guidance in programs being conducted by South Dakota, which also has a large portion of its citizens living in rural areas.
Nebraska has a jail diversion program in Lancaster County that sets an example for similar programs throughout the nation. Clients, who are provided with help in finding jobs, treatment, housing, food and transportation, and navigating the court system show improvement in their attitudes and symptoms, and report a greater ability to control their lives, and to deal with crisis.
Connecticut is on the cutting edge of credentialing for co-occurring disorders. This State has a certification program specifically designed to address the competencies required for professionals working with people in recovery from co-occurring substance use and mental disorders. It represents an unprecedented advancement in the behavioral health care field…an advancement which is beginning to be adopted around the world.
Kentucky is successfully diverting people with serious mental Illnesses into treatment rather than jail through two highly effective, NAMI-supported Crisis Intervention Team programs along with a federally funded mental Health court. It also passed a law mandating a statewide telephonic triage system to screen jail inmates for mental, cognitive, or substance abuse disorders, and provide linkages to treatment.
This is the real and measurable progress toward transformation that we know about and this is just the tip of the iceberg. We are seeing more and more of these kinds of success stories unfolding in States and communities from California to the Carolinas. I learn about more everywhere I go and need you to share your State’s accomplishments with us.
Over the next few days, you will have a tremendous opportunity to acquire new knowledge to meet the challenges of transformation. In the upcoming “Brag ‘n Take” networking session, you’ll learn how some of your colleagues are reframing challenges and taking action to move transformation forward. During one of the plenary sessions you will learn more about making the mental health system work for older adults with mental illnesses. And, in a brand new workshop, you’ll explore the intersection of the mental health and juvenile justice systems.
Brian Tracy, author of The Psychology of Achievement, writes “…people who develop the ability to continuously acquire new and better forms of knowledge that they can apply to their work and to their lives will be the movers and shakers in our society for the indefinite future.” You—as mental health professionals, advocates and consumers, addressing the challenges and opportunities in planning and data management—are the movers and shakers of transformation. You are the future of our public mental health system.
Introduction for Terry Cline Follows
Now, I take great pleasure in introducing our new SAMHSA Administrator who assumed his position in January. Hailing from the great State of Oklahoma, he spent the previous two years serving as the State’s Secretary of Health where he was an early champion of transformation. During his tenure in that position, Oklahoma became one of the first States to align its strategic plan with the goals of the New Freedom Commission and use its block grant to promote a new recovery-oriented State behavioral health service system.
Prior to his position as Secretary, he served as Commissioner of Oklahoma’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Service where he built strong collaborative relationships among public and private organizations and government agencies that touch the lives of people with substance abuse and mental health problems.
In addition to his work in Oklahoma, this transformational leader also spent 6 years as a clinical instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and served as chairman of the governing board for a Harvard teaching hospital in Cambridge. Over the years, his passion and commitment to improving the supports and services of individuals with substance abuse and mental health disorders is unsurpassed. Please join me in welcoming, SAMHSA’s Administrator…Dr. Terry Cline.
|
