This new report from the Montana Healthcare Foundation shows how Medicaid expansion significantly increases access to care for mental illness and substance use disorders and supports a long-needed transformation in Montana’s behavioral health system.
In mid-March, 2020, Therapy Aid Coalition launched its first initiative, Coronavirus Online Therapy with the intention of connecting essential workers with free and low-cost online therapy during the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, they have thousands of participating therapists within all 50 US States, and have recently expanded to serve not only essential workers during COVID, but also victims of national disasters and crises within the US including the 2020 California and Colorado Wildfires and the Table Mesa Shooting in Boulder, CO.
Promising Evidences of the Role Emotional CPR: Co-Immunity through Community CPR – As this silent, invisible virus ravages our earth, many of us—young and old—feel alone, powerless, and numb. We are urged to keep a physical distance, wear a mask and wash our hands while we wait for enough people to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity. Alienation, frustration, and despair seep in and crush our spirits in their frightening coils. When mental health professionals see these challenges and screen for anxiety and depression, their usual response is to affix a diagnostic label, and then prescribe medications. Yet, in times of other disasters or public health crisis, medication and traditional psychotherapy may not be enough—more than ever we need each other .
Q&A with Janie Marsh Gullickson, Director, Mental Health & Addiction Association of Oregon (video and transcript)- Mental Health & Addiction Association of Oregon (MHAAO) peers have built and maintained relationships with jail staff, court teams, transition and release counselors, local law enforcement, parole and probation officers, and child welfare. We are people who may have even been involved in those systems, and these system partners have witnessed our journey from client to team member now serving people right alongside them. All this is accomplished while staying true to the core values and principles of peer work.
The 2017 State Health Assessment (SHA) and 2019—2023 State Health Improvement Plan (SHIP) were published in February 2019 after a public comment period. An updated version of the 2019 SHIP was released in January 2020 and again in February 2021 to include refined objectives for improved monitoring and evaluation; several objectives in the original documents did not have baseline data calculated and targets established, both of which are now included for all objectives. The SHA and the SHIP are published on the A Healthier Montana website and were developed in collaboration with the State Health Improvement Coalition, a group of statewide health partners.
This fact sheet presents information on psychosis including causes, signs and symptoms, treatment, and resources for help.
Combining cinema verité and investigative journalism, Medicating Normal follows the journeys of a newly married couple, a female combat veteran, a waitress and a teenager whose doctors prescribed psychiatric drugs for stress, mild depression, sleeplessness, focus and trauma. Our subjects struggle with serious physical and mental side effects as well as neurological damage which resulted from taking the drugs as prescribed and also from attempting to withdraw.
Healing Voices is a social action documentary which chronicles the lives of people experiencing mental health issues or extreme states in real time. The film features characters who have made incredible recoveries, or are working towards recovery, by finding alternatives to the current one-size-fits-all medical model.
This guide presents three evidence-based practices that engage and improve outcomes for youth and young adults with co-occurring SED/SMI and substance misuse or SUD. These approaches will assist clinicians, behavioral health organizations, primary care providers, schools, insurers, transformation experts, and policy makers to understand, select, and implement evidence-based interventions that support youth and young adult mental health. These include psychosocial interventions, family behavioral therapy, medication, proactive outreach, and use of web-based and other technologies.
Middle and high schools across the country use SOS Signs of Suicide to educate students about suicide prevention and identify students in need. SOS has shown a reduction in self-reported suicide attempts by 40-64%.
Through a video and guided discussion, students learn to identify warning signs of suicide and depression in a single class period. At the end of the session, students complete a seven-question screening for depression (anonymous or signed – the school can decide) to further encourage help-seeking and connect students at risk with trusted adults. The curriculum raises awareness about behavioral health and encourages students to ACT (Acknowledge, Care, Tell) when worried about themselves or their peers.
HB 2980 would provide funding for three “peer respite centers”—short-term, homelike facilities for people experiencing mental health crises. Currently, people suffering such crises often end up in jail or emergency rooms, neither of which are equipped to handle them. This bill proposes instead to create safe places where people who’ve had mental health crises themselves—i.e., peers—would provide the services.
Contracting COVID-19, being exposed to it, or being affected by societal containment measures can have consequences that are themselves social determinants of health. Preexisting social determinants of health also drive the disproportionately high prevalence of COVID-19 infection and deaths among minority, marginalized, and other vulnerable populations. Thus, the social determinants of mental health act as both mediators and moderators of the pandemic’s impacts, and like all social determinants, the effects of the pandemic are underpinned by public policies and social norms. The major economic impacts of containment measures have had cascading effects that will affect mental health for years to come.
The Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) model alleviates decades-old challenges that have led to a crisis in providing access to mental health and addiction care. CCBHCs are responsible for directly providing (or contracting with partner organizations to provide) nine types of services,1 with an emphasis on the provision of 24-hour crisis care, utilization of evidence-based practices, care coordination and integration with physical health care. The demonstration program represents the largest investment in mental health and addiction care in generations.
The Alzheimer’s Association leads the way to end Alzheimer’s and all other dementia — by accelerating global research, driving risk reduction and early detection, and maximizing quality care and support.
Montana is a great big state and the Alzheimer’s Association has an enormous mission. Help us determine how we can best reach the growing number in need. Whether you live in a larger city or a smaller town, we invite all feedback.
The mission of the Alternatives conference is to include as many diverse perspectives as possible on mental health recovery.
The Alternatives conference continues on the legacy of the late Judi Chamberlin, a pioneering leader in the peer rights movement, and is funded entirely through registration fees and donations. “We will be ‘on our own’ again, connecting to the roots of our movement,” said conference chair Anthony Fox. “We will be free and empowered to express our unique voices, to learn from each other in the spirit of self-help, mutual support, and the principles of recovery in action, with the goal of living full and independent lives in the community.”
The Ombudsman represents the interests of Montanans seeking access to public mental health services.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person’s race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, transgender status, and sexual orientation), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information.
The Mental Health Provider’s Role in a Client’s Request for a Reasonable Accommodation at Work
Enforcement Guidance on Reasonable Accommodation and Undue Hardship under the ADA
Provides an overview of psychosis among youth and young adults. It offers guidance on how to provide support, and recommendations for treatment.