Advocacy E-News January 3, 2018
January 3, 2018
NJ LAWMAKERS PRESS AHEAD WITH MENTAL HEALTH SERVICE REFORM
New Jersey lawmakers are going forward with a plan to build on an administrative reform that consolidated state oversight of behavioral and physical health programs to create more integrated healthcare services. The state Senate approved bipartisan legislation in December that would codify aspects of the shift and have the Department of Health create a single license process that would enable qualified facilities to offer treatments to address mental illness, addiction, and physical maladies.
WHICH STATES ARE NAUGHTY OR NICE THOSE WITH MENTAL ILLNESS?
Governors and legislators regularly claim, “we have to do more for the mentally ill.” But how much are they actually doing and how does one state compare to another? Using a novel metric, a new study from Mental Illness Policy Org, Funds for Mental Illness: Is Your State Generous or Stingy, determined that the most generous states in terms of allocating spending to mental health.
10 THINGS MURPHY CAN DO TO MAKE N.J.’S LARGEST PSYCH HOSPITAL LESS DANGEROUS | OPINION
Governor-elect Murphy and his team have a whole range of difficult and controversial issues demanding their attention. It would be easy not to listen to the voices at Greystone as they are drowned out by the din of competing demands. It would be easy, but it would also be wrong.
The Murphy administration would serve the state well by listening to the voices at Greystone and letting them know they were heard.
MURPHY NOMINATES NEXT COMMISSIONERS OF HUMAN SERVICES AND CHILDREN’S SERVICES
Governor-elect Phil Murphy today appointed former Obama administration official Carole Johnson as the next Commissioner of the Department of Human Services and named Christine Norbut Beyer, the former director of the New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services, to be the commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Children and Families.
TELEMEDICINE HELPS PEDIATRICIANS IDENTIFY MENTAL ILLNESS IN KIDS
One in five youths has a diagnosable mental disorder but only 30 percent of youngsters under age 17 receive services. To help children get the proper diagnosis and care, Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care (UBHC) and New Jersey Medical School have partnered with Essex County pediatricians to give training on behavioral health screening and assessment and provide consultation, care coordination and direct service to youths and their families.
FIND YOUR LOCAL NAMI
