Hill Day at Home Advocacy Solutions Guide

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Sunovion .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 2 Otsuka 4

Advocacy Snapshot ....................................................................................................................................................................... 5 Janssen Neuroscience 6 The Impact and Importance of CCBHCs .................................................................................................................................. 7

CCBHC Success Center 8

CCBHC: A Model All Communities Can Follow ...................................................................................................................... 9 Spring Health 10 PhRMA ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 12

Youth Mental Wellbeing Needs During COVID-19 13 Save the Date! Hill Day 2022 ....................................................................................................................................................... 14

Consulting & Training.................................................................................................................................................................... 15 Hill Day at Home Sponsors .......................................................................................................................................................... 16 New MDI Report on Fentanyl...................................................................................................................................................... 17

Advocacy Partners 18

Partnering to Improve Youth Mental Wellbeing ...................................................................................................................... 19 Register for NatCon22! 20

Self-care: Where Do I Start? ........................................................................................................................................................ 21 National Council Partners 22 National Council Membership: Benefits Spotlight .................................................................................................................. 23

ADVOCACY SNAPSHOT

Helping You Help Others

While you’ve been working hard to keep your communities healthy, the National Council for Mental Wellbeing has been advocating for the federal policies and funding you need to support your work. Here’s a snapshot of some of our most recent advocacy accomplishments on your behalf:

• We secured more than $3 billion in block grants for substance abuse and mental health funding via the American Rescue Plan Act and the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. Our efforts led to billions in provider relief funding being made available for National Council members through the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). That relief included a targeted distribution specifically for mental health and substance use treatment organizations.

• We successfully advocated for more than $1 billion in funding for Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) grants, benefiting hundreds of mental health and substance use treatment organizations and laying the groundwork for an expanded CCBHC presence.

• With one eye on the future, we successfully passed 988 legislation and are continuing to shepherd further implementation support legislation through Congress. We also secured the passage of a crisis stabilization bill that creates community-level crisis response programs and trainings for organizations serving justice-involved individuals.

Learn more about advocacy work by reading our Capitol Connector blog! Want to get breaking policy news delivered to your desktop and phone? Sign up for our Advocacy Alerts to stay informed.

THE IMPACT AND IMPORTANCE OF CCBHCs

Have you heard about Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHC), but are not sure what they are? A CCBHC is a specially designated clinic that receives flexible funding to expand the scope of mental health and substance use treatment services available in their community.

The CCBHC model alleviates decadesold challenges that have led to a crisis in providing access to mental health and substance use care across the nation. In January 2021, the National Council surveyed the nation’s 224 active CCBHCs. Here’s a preview of our findings.

• CCBHCs are closing the treatment gap that leaves millions of Americans with unmet mental health and substance use care needs, bringing thousands of new clients into care.

• CCBHCs have improved access to treatment. Whereas wait times for services average 48 days around the nation, 93% of surveyed CCBHCs reported seeing clients for their first appointment within 10 days of their outreach.

• CCBHCs provide support for significant hiring and workforce expansions, with peer specialists, medical directors and psychiatrists among the most commonly added staff.

• CCBHCs are addressing the nation’s opioid crisis by expanding access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT), the “gold standard” of substance use care.

• CCBHCs are delivering crisis support services in their communities, helping to divert people in crisis from hospitals, emergency departments and jails.

• CCBHCs are working with law enforcement agencies and other criminal justice partners to reduce incarceration and improve crisis response.

Download our CCBHC impact report to learn more. Want to become a CCBHC or learn how to maximize your impact as one? Visit our CCBHC Success Center to get started!

CCBHC A MODEL ALL COMMUNITIES CAN FOLLOW :

The 67-year-old who walked into Integrity House, an outpatient mental health and substance use treatment center in Newark, N.J., said he needed help overcoming a 40-year history of drinking.

His story included more than a substance use challenge. The client also had mental health challenges and medical comorbidities that resulted in a series of emergency department visits and inpatient hospitalizations. So, the staff at Integrity House got to work.

The same cold day in March that the client walked into Integrity House, he met with a clinician and received an initial evaluation and risk assessment. He met with a care manager to address adverse social determinants of health and coordination of care for medical comorbidities.

Their peer recovery specialist transported the client home and engaged him in rapport building. He met with the prescriber the following day, and she initiated psychotropic medications. The client also met with Integrity House’s primary care provider, who performed a history and physical and provided referrals to specialty doctors.

A peer recovery specialist attended initial Alcoholics Anonymous meetings with the client. The case manager and peer recovery specialist assisted him in scheduling and attending medical appointments and coordinated care among all providers. They assisted him in obtaining bus passes, as well as providing help managing medical correspondence.

Integrity House has accommodated clients with substance use and mental health challenges since opening its doors 53 years ago in downtown Newark. But it was only in the past two years that Integrity House became a licensed mental health clinic. That happened when it completed its transition to a CCBHC. Now, Integrity House can provide more services than ever before and no longer must refer patients to licensed mental health clinics.

“It’s so important that we provide both mental health and substance use treatment because so often those conditions occur together,” Integrity House President and CEO Robert Budsock said. (continued

An estimated 8.9 million adults in the U.S. have co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. CCBHCs are closing the treatment gap that leaves so many without proper care.

“CCBHCs help eliminate barriers to access and ensure that clients receive whole-person care — not just some of the care they need,” Budsock said.

That’s because CCBHCs provide a full array of services and supports, integrated with primary care and coordinated with other social service providers. In addition to dramatically increasing access to mental health and substance use disorder treatment, CCBHCs have reduced wait times, expanded states’ capacity to address the overdose crisis and established innovative partnerships with law enforcement, schools and hospitals to improve care, reduce recidivism and prevent hospital readmissions.

Integrated treatment — the comprehensive care CCBHCs offer routinely — should be the norm, and CCBHCs provide a model to make integrated care a reality for everyone.

In Missouri, hospitalizations dropped 20% within three years of adoption the CCBHC model, and emergency department visits dropped 36%. Access to mental health services increased 23% in three years, with veteran services increasing 19%. In Texas, the CCBHC model is projected to save $10 billion by 2030.

Thanks to federal and state investment, more than 430 communities in 42 states now have a CCBHC — including Newark. The transformation Integrity House made to become a CCBHC has paid off, Budsock said, for the organization, its clients and the community.

“I hope more providers move in this direction because CCBHCs offer comprehensive care,” Budsock said. Much of that depends on continued federal support. In 2018, Congress began appropriating annual funds for CCBHC expansion grants, designed to further the reach of the clinics. SAMHSA has received over $1 billion from Congress to fund CCBHC Expansion Grants.

Recently, SAMHSA announced it is awarding the National Council for Mental Wellbeing a five-year grant to operate a national center for technical assistance for CCBHC grantees, a profound show of support and an endorsement of CCBHCs.

We know CCBHCs are making a difference — expanding access, improving collaborations with criminal justice agencies and expanding access to substance use disorder treatment.

That’s why we are urging Congress to include the bipartisan Excellence in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment Act in the reconciliation package. This legislation would allow any state to participate in the CCBHC program and establish a payment rate that covers the real cost of expanding access.

We need more organizations like Integrity House. We need more CCBHCs because they provide vital treatment to people in their communities — to all people who walk through their doors.

YOUTH MENTAL WELLBEING NEEDS DURING COVID-19

A majority of parents say their children’s mental wellbeing worsened during the past year and a half because of remote learning and social isolation due to COVID-19, according to a recent poll from the National Council for Mental Wellbeing. Parents also expressed anxiety about their children returning to schools for the 20212022 school year.

Released on Wednesday, September 8, the poll highlights the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young people and the increasing need for mental health and substance use information, resources and support for families and schools. The data arrives at a time of rising concerns across the country about young people returning to in-person learning in schools this fall.

“The mark of the COVID-19 pandemic has gone beyond physical health. It has negatively affected children and adolescents during a crucial time for social and emotional development,” National Council President and CEO Chuck Ingoglia said. “We must provide parents, teachers and community leaders with access to key mental health and substance use information and resources to improve wellbeing among young people as we navigate the new school year and beyond.”

Key findings from the National Council survey, encompassing feedback from parents of children in kindergarten through 12th grade, include:

• Parents agree COVID-19 has affected the mental wellbeing of their K-12 children. A majority of parents say there has been a change in their children’s mental wellbeing during the past year and a half due to remote learning (62%) and social isolation stemming from COVID-19 restrictions (59%). The impact on children varies based on ethnicity, community type, region and the age of the child.

• Parents of children in kindergarten and middle school are more likely to say their child is experiencing re-entry anxiety for the new school year. A third of all parents (36%) say their child is experiencing (continued next page)

anxiety around returning for the new school year. Parents with a child in kindergarten (41%) and middle school (43%) are more likely than other parents to say their child is experiencing re-entry anxiety.

• There is support from parents for school districts to increase mental health support services due to the impact of COVID-19. Three quarters (73%) of parents say school districts should increase mental health support for children because of the effects of social isolation from COVID-19.

Morning Consult conducted the polling from August 6-9, 2021, among a sample of 466 parents of kindergarten-12th grade children. The interviews were conducted online, and the data were weighted to approximate a target sample of parents of kindergarten-12th-grade children based on gender, educational attainment, age, race and region. Results from the full survey have a margin of error of plus or minus five percentage points.

SPONSORS

NEW MEDICAL DIRECTOR INSTITUTE REPORT ON FENTANYL

Fentanyl and its analogs are currently the primary drivers of deaths in the opioid overdose crisis and responsible for the third wave of the opioid epidemic. What can be done to curb this trend?

A new National Council Medical Directors Institute report offers principles and recommendations for remediating the impacts of the rising rates of drugs adulterated or laced with fentanyl.

Here’s a preview of the four principles outlined in “Guidance on Handling the Increasing Prevalence of Drugs Adulterated or Laced with Fentanyl,” available to you online:

1. Pursue an incremental approach to behavior change (harm reduction).

2. Emphasize engagement for persons who use drugs, as a first step.

3. Use integrated care to initiate engagement and treatment.

4. Be vigilant for fentanyl as the rule rather than the exception.

The unintended use of fentanyl has led to a spike in drug overdose deaths across the country. Download our new guide to learn how you can address the escalating fentanyl crisis.

Thank you to our ADVOCACY PARTNERS

PARTNERING TO IMPROVE YOUTH MENTAL WELLBEING

Youth of all races, identities and abilities deserve equitable access to mental health supports that are inclusive and responsive to their lived experiences. The reality is that young people are experiencing mental health challenges at increasingly alarming rates, and many of them — like youth of color, LGBTQ+ youth, and youth in rural and frontier communities — face inadequate access to quality care.

You can spark the change you wish to see in your community to improve youth mental wellbeing. The National Council for Mental Wellbeing’s new web-based guide, “Connecting Communities for Youth Mental Wellbeing: A Guide to Youth-Adult Partnership,” offers tools, activities and other resources to help youth and community-based organizations collaborate to realize a shared vision for change.

By partnering with youth and sharing power in decision-making, community-based organizations can empower young people to channel their voices of lived experience and create new, more inclusive approaches to improving youth mental wellbeing. Together, we can build responsive community support systems that nurture resilience, self-efficacy and wellbeing for all youth.

SELF-CARE

WHERE DO I START? :

While it can feel fulfilling to support loved ones if they are experiencing a mental health or substance use challenge, providing help can also take a toll on your own physical and mental wellbeing. It can be emotionally draining, bring up feelings of anxiety or sadness, or even make you physically tired.

If you don’t have a lot of experience with self-care, it can be difficult to know how to start. Luckily, the Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) curriculum has tips to get you going on your self-care journey. According to MHFA, self-care refers to activities and practices that you can engage in on a regular basis to reduce stress and maintain your short- and long-term health and wellbeing.

Your self-care plan should consist of activities you enjoy doing, and it’s OK if your plan changes and grows as you do. Remember that self-care is something you should do for yourself. Your plan should be individualized for you and help combat the symptoms that may arise with burnout, stress, anxiety or depression. Here are five goals to keep in mind when developing your self-care plan:

1. Take care of physical and psychological health.

2. Manage and reduce stress.

3. Recognize emotional and spiritual needs.

4. Foster and sustain relationships.

5. Achieve balance in different areas of life.

Creating your plan around these goals will give you a more holistic approach to supporting your mental health and ensures that you’re covered in all areas of your wellbeing. People will differ in which areas they want to emphasize but finding a balance that works for you is important.

The core tenet of self-care is you. Aim to find activities you enjoy that will help reduce feelings of stress and burnout, not add to it. If you find that something is no longer serving you, try something new! The ways in which you implement self-care should be intentional and actively planned rather than something that just happens — make a commitment to yourself, for yourself.

Thank you to our PARTNERS

NATIONAL COUNCIL

MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS SPOTLIGHT :

As a National Council member, you, your staff and your board of directors have access to exclusive benefits and discounts that will help you achieve your goals and maximize your impact. We’re making it easier for you to learn from likeminded peers, share your experiences and participate in conversations. Here are just a few of the many benefits available to you as a National Council member:

• Chat with experts, lead conversations and examine new interventions for select populations through our Interest Groups Anyone in your organization can join! Our solutions-focused digital communities are designed to help advance support for older adults; LGBTQ+; individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities; and children, young adults and families.

• Empower your employees by inviting them to experience more than 50 peer-led webinars on diverse topics. While you’re at it, invest in your operations through our consulting and technical assistance services, leadership trainings, education programs and workforce solutions.

• Learn more about our unique solutions through our new “National Council Conversations” video series. Want to stay on top of industry trends? Attend our new “Wellbeing Wednesdays” events, where a panel of thoughts leaders discuss health care innovations and opportunities.

• Get the support you need by connecting with industry-leading organizations through our Partnership Program. We can help you achieve your strategic goals by increasing your visibility, communicating key information to our networks, and sharing tools and strategic insight!

Every day and across the country, we are fighting for affordable and accessible treatment, advocating for life-saving legislation, addressing health disparities and increasing mental health literacy. Learn more about our organizational impact by reading our blog! Questions? Contact us!