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DIRECTOR'S Update
September 1996
Personnel
Ted Searle, the former director of the Office of Resource Management,
was appointed as Director of the CMHS Office of Policy, Planning, and
Administration-formerly the Office of Policy and Planning. This office
is charged with gathering information about field activities and
analyzing the implications for CMHS policies and programs.
To better coordinate the Center's focus on managed care, CMHS has
established a new position, Associate Director for Organization and
Financing. Dr. Jeffrey Buck is serving in this important role.
Charlotte Mehuron, former director of the Office of External Liaison
(OEL), has taken a similar position with the Food and Drug
Administration. Until her replacement is hired, Dr. Thomas Bornemann,
the Center's Deputy Director, will be the acting director of OEL.
The Rural Mental Health Association presented Ron Manderscheid, Director
of the Survey and Analysis Branch, with its "Going to Bat" award for
rural advocacy. He has long been a champion of consumers, supporting the
Consumer/Survivor Research and Policy Work Group, and the Consumer
Managed Care Network.
Budget
Fiscal Year 1996. Congress authorized the CMHS budget for FY 1996 in
April. At slightly more than $413 million, it is $26 million less than
the Center's FY 1995 budget. Nonetheless, the final budget for CMHS
proved to be higher than might have been expected midway through the
budget process.
The most significant cut was $14 million in knowledge development and
application grant funds. Rather than make crippling, across-the-board
cuts in all demonstration grants, CMHS decided to discontinue specific
programs, including those for HIV/AIDS clinical training, which will be
discontinued at the end of this year.
Fiscal Year 1997. Negotiations for the FY 1997 budget have been
underway since May, when the House Subcommittee on Labor, Health, and
Human Services held hearings on the President's proposed FY 1997 budget
for SAMHSA. The Senate is scheduled to act on the budget this month.
The President's budget again proposed consolidating PATH with the Mental
Health Block Grant. The House has maintained PATH as a separate budget
line.
The House Appropriations Committee recommended a total of $415 million
for CMHS for FY 1997. This is an increase of $2.1 million over FY 1996.
This increase restores the Protection and Advocacy program to the FY
1995 funding level. The Knowledge Development and Application,
Children's Services, Mental Health Block Grant, and PATH programs remain
at their enacted FY 1996 funding level.
As did the FY 1996 budget proposal, the President's FY 1997 request
proposes to replace the Community Mental Health Center Block Grant with
Performance Partnership Grants. The future of this initiative, however,
is uncertain.
CMHS staff continue to develop ambitious initiatives for FY 1997. These
programs include those that:
- Keep people with severe mental illness living independently;
- Keep people with severe mental illness out of jail;
- Involve consumers and families;
- Promote mental health care for older Americans;
- Create systems of care for Native American children; and
- Improve crisis intervention services.
Federal Legislation
The House and Senate are considering several bills that affect the scope
and quality of mental health services. Among these are S.2031, the
Mental Health Parity Act of 1996. On Wednesday, September 11,
Representative Roukema (R-NJ) introduced a companion bill in the House.
The Senate hearings on this proposal are scheduled for today, September
12. The complete text of S.2031 and Senator Domenici's (R-NM) remarks
are an appendix to this update.
Other legislative activities include:
Reauthorization. S.1180 is held up in the Senate because of a
controversial provision about religious organizations. The Bill will
not be considered during this session; the House has taken no action.
Performance Partnership Grants (PPGs). The Administration has
considered asking Congress for legislative authority to test PPGs by
supporting demonstration projects.
Saving Our Children: The American Community Renewal Act of 1996,
HR.3647. This Act would allow religious organizations to receive funds
under Title XIX of the Public Health Service Act. Such organizations
would be able to maintain their religious character and would be
permitted to hire exclusively individuals who are members of their
religion. Such hiring practices could be accomplished, in part, by
requiring that States provide equivalent licensing to counselors for
religious organizations as they provide for other counselors. The House
has not taken action on the measure.
P.L. 104-121. This law removed substance abuse as a condition that
could lead to eligibility for SSI and SSDI.
All of these legislative measures could have a profound effect on the
lives of people with severe mental illness. However, the major
legislative issue Congress now faces, and which it faced in the last
session, is that of insurance parity for mental health.
Reorganization at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration and at the Center for Mental Health Services
As part of the "Reinventing Government" process, which strives to make
Government more responsive to its customers, the Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and CMHS underwent a
major reorganization. The creation of a SAMHSA Office of Program
Services-which oversees SAMHSA activities related to grants, contracts,
and personnel-enables CMHS to focus resources on services and less on
administrative duties. This element of the reorganization dramatically
increases CMHS' operating efficiency and its collaboration with its
sister SAMHSA Centers, the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention and the
Center for Substance Abuse Treatment.
Along with similar offices in the sister Centers, the CMHS Office of
Resource Management was dissolved and consolidated into the new SAMHSA
Office of Program Services.
KEN96-0041
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