May 31, 2011

Featured Resource
Grants & Funding Opportunities
National Council Resources & Events
Integration Resources & Events
Other Resources & Events
Member Spotlight

FEATURED RESOURCE

Be an Effective Advocate –Make Your Opinions Count on the Hill
Constituent advocacy is one of the most powerful ways to make a difference in the halls of Congress! Come to Washington, D.C. for Hill Day 2011, and take advantage of our workshops designed to help you be a successful advocate.

At our 2011 Public Policy Institute and Hill Day, the National Council is offering workshops that will help you learn how to successfully communicate your priorities to your elected officials. In addition to these workshops, you can participate in our annual letter writing campaign to bring the voices of your communities to Washington. Stories from constituents back home have a powerful effect on public policy. We’ll make sure all the letters get delivered to your elected officials on Hill Day. Click here to learn more.

Registration  for Hill Day is free and open to all members. Register today, and start setting up your July 20th appointments with your Senators, Representative, and the Washington branch of your Governor’s office!

GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

Integration of Drug Abuse Prevention in Primary Care
The National Institute on Drug Abuse is requesting applications for an implementation research project to identify effective strategies and service delivery models for integrating existing evidence-based approaches to drug abuse prevention and treatment into primary care settings. Selected applicants will be awarded up to $500,000. Eligible applicants include government agencies, for profit and not-for-profit organizations. Deadline to apply is October 31, 2011. Read more.

Public Prevention Health Fund: Community Transformation Grants
HHS has announced the availability of $100 million for the current fiscal year for up to 75 Community Transformation Grants to support the implementation, evaluation, and dissemination of evidence-based community preventive health activities to achieve reductions in death or disability. Recipients may address several focus areas including mental health and substance abuse disorders. Eligible applicants include state and local non-profit organizations. The deadline to apply is July 15, 2011. Read more.

National Juvenile Probation Census Project
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention will award one, three-year grant of up to $400,000 a year to an organization or partnership of organizations to administer all data collection activities that supports the development and maintenance of two complementary national data collection programs that make up OJJDP’s National Juvenile Probation Census Project . Eligible applications include for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. Applicants should submit applications by June 29. Read more.

Street Outreach Program Funding Opportunity
The Administration on Children, Youth and Families is providing funds for outreach services designed to build relationships between grantee staff and runaway, homeless, and street youth. Eligible applicants include public and private non-profit agencies. Interested parties should submit applications by June 24, 2011. Read more.

Funding Opportunity for Homeless and Runaway Youth
The Administration on Children, Youth and Families’ Basic Center Program is providing funding to establish or strengthen community-based programs that meet the immediate needs of runaway and homeless youth and their families. Approximately $17 million will be awarded to 107 grantees. Eligible applicants include public and non-profit agencies. Applications should be submitted by June 24, 2011. Read more.

Funding to Enhance Services through HIT
SAMHSA has announced the availability of funding to expand and/or enhance the capacity of substance abuse treatment providers to serve persons in treatment who have been underserved through the use of health information technology. Up to 20 grants with approximately $5.6 million per grantee will be awarded. Eligible applicants are domestic public and private nonprofit entities. Applications are due by June 13, 2011. Read more.

Grants to Enhance Older Adult Behavioral Health Services
SAMHSA is offering ten one-time grants of up to $356,344 each to expand existing Older Adult Targeted Capacity Expansion (TCE) programs to include a focus on the prevention of suicide and prescription drug misuse and abuse among the older adult population. Eligible applicants are domestic public and private non-profit entities who are current or previous TCE grantees from cohorts FY 2002 – 2008.  The application deadline is June 7, 2011. Read More.

NATIONAL COUNCIL RESOURCES & EVENTS

National Council JOBank
The National Council JOBank connects organizations with the best candidates for executive, administrative, clinical, and direct care positions. JOBank is the only web-based national job board devoted entirely to careers in mental health and addictions treatment. National Council members qualify for discounted rates on all purchase options. Read more.

Is the Behavioral Health Workforce Underpaid? Salary Survey Now Available
The National Council’s 2011 Behavioral Health Salary Survey provides important information about the behavioral health workforce at a time when healthcare delivery structures are rapidly evolving, job responsibilities are becoming more complex, and the competition for high-performing employees is intensifying. The Salary Survey is now available for purchase online. Read More.

Register for Upcoming National Council Live Webinars
The National Council will host several webinars in the upcoming weeks, including: “Key Considerations in Designing the Health Home SPA” (June 7). Read More and Register.

INTEGRATION RESOURCES & EVENTS

Register for Upcoming CIHS Live Webinars
The SAMHSA-HRSA Center for Integrated Health Solutions will host the upcoming webinar “Introduction to Effective Behavioral Health in Primary Care” on June 1. Read More and Register. 

Upcoming Webinar: Forecasting Return on Investment for Medicaid Health Homes     
The Center for Health Care Strategies webinar will be held on June 2, from 2:00-3:30. During this webinar, states, health plans, and other stakeholders will learn how they can use this free, web-based tool to develop an ROI forecast, and to facilitate health home or medical home program design. Read more.

New Tool to Improve Measurement of Primary Care Depression Outcomes
Primary care doctors have long been on the front lines of depression treatment. Doctors at the University of Michigan Health System have developed a new tool that may help family physicians better evaluate the extent to which a patient’s depression has improved. Read more.

Recovery Defined – A Unified Working Definition and Set of Principles
A group of leaders in the behavioral health field have come together to develop a unified definition of recovery.  The development of a standard, unified working definition of recovery will help assure access to recovery-oriented services for those who need it. Read more.

OTHER RESOURCES AND EVENTS

PTSD App for Veterans and Servicemembers
The Department of Veterans Affairs has launched a PTSD Coach smart phone application that lets users track their PTSD symptoms, link to public and personalized sources of support, access information about the disease, and learn helpful strategies for managing their symptoms. Since the launch in April, over 5,000 users have downloaded the application. Read more.

SAMHSA Releases School Toolkit for Suicide Prevention
SAMHSA’s Suicide Prevention Research Center has released, “After a Suicide: A Toolkit for Schools.” The toolkit describes common warning signs and causes of suicide, provides best practices on suicide prevention in schools, and provides information about how a school should respond when a suicide has occurred. Read more.

HHS Helps Americans with Pre-Existing Conditions Get Health Insurance
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today announced new steps to reduce premiums and make it easier for Americans to enroll in the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, which serves as a bridge to 2014 when insurers will no longer be allowed to deny coverage to people with any pre-existing condition. Premiums for the plan will drop as much as 40 percent in 18 States, and eligibility standards will be eased in 23 States and the District of Columbia.  Read more.

SAMHSA Video Series: Homeless LGBTQ Youth
“Larkin Street Stories: Serving Homeless LGBTQ Youth” is a three-part video series offering tips on best practices for providers serving lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth who are homeless. Staff from Larkin Street Youth Services discuss and share lessons regarding their approach to serving this population. Read more. 

AFFILIATE MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

Afia is a health care IT consulting company that works with community health centers, physician groups, and other medical practices to implement IT systems and strategies to create more efficient and effective health care organizations. We will help you create a plan and then find the technology solutions that best fit your needs, independent of the software vendor.

Beacon Health Strategies is a pioneer in the field of integrating behavioral health services with medical care, provides customized behavioral health solutions for publicly funded, highly vulnerable populations. Beacon is leading a new generation of behavioral healthcare organizations designed to unleash the full possibility of integrated care.

Addiction Treatment Providers Insurance Program is an exclusive insurance program designed specifically for the Behavioral Healthcare industry. We offer a comprehensive menu of insurance coverages and risk management tools designed to meet the unique needs of all addiction treatment and mental healthcare providers. We serve a wide range of inpatient and outpatient facilities across the U.S. including those with larger and more diverse operations.

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

A Four County Mental Health Center (Independence, KS) program has been selected as the recipient of the coveted Johnson & Johnson Dartmouth Achievement Award for 2011. The Supported Employment Services program, one of three awarded, provides persons with Severe and Persistently Mental Illnesses (SPMI) with the skills to obtain competitive work in the community and provides the supports necessary to ensure their success in the workplace. The primary goal of the SE program is not to change consumers, but find a natural fit between consumers’ strengths, experiences and jobs in the community.

Last year GUIDE Program, Inc. (Laurel, MD) launched their Going Green Initiative intended to help the nonprofit behavioral health organization become more environmentally friendly while allowing the agency to stretch its financial resources further in meeting its critical mission.  In phase one of the initiative, the organization purchased 50% of its electricity from wind power generation, garnering the organization as an “EPA Green Power Partner”.