No doubt the word “ Sequestration” is front and center in your vocabulary these days. This is just a quick note to forecast how it might impact our mission. For starters… the main impacts from federal sequestration (i.e. the federal budget reduction for some programs) will be related to the services that we provide and [...]
Our Vision at the Arizona Department of Health Services is, ”Health and Wellness for all Arizonans.” Part of our mission includes helping individuals with substance abuse issues achieve and maintain self-reliance and independence. To get there, some individuals simply need occasional outpatient services. Some need wrap-around, community or home-based services. Others require more intensive treatment [...]
Our Vision at the Arizona Department of Health Services is ”Health and Wellness for all Arizonans”. Part of that Vision for folks living with behavioral health issues or a mental illness means achieving and maintaining self-reliance and independence. To get there, some individuals simply need outpatient services occasionally. Some need wrap-around community or home-based services. [...]
We just issued a Request for Proposal to find a contractor to make eligibility determinations regarding whether or not folks meet the criteria for determination as seriously mentally ill (SMI) in Maricopa County. The idea is to have an objective process for eligibility determinations by contracting with an independent entity. The contractor will be responsible [...]
Mental Health First Aid reached the national stage this week in the Presidents message. This week’s Now is the Time document developed by the Fed’s advocates expanding Mental Health First Aid Training for teachers and adults who work with kids. The proposal also includes funding to help identified children and teens find treatment if they [...]
Our Behavioral Health Services team just finished and published our FY 12 Annual Report. The new report identifies the number of clients served by service area, funding category and program; and includes programmatic financial reports of revenues, expenditures and administrative costs. In it, you'll see that we received a total of about $1.46B in funding for FY 2012 for behavioral health services. Our Agency [...]
We all need to take care of both our physical and behavioral health needs in order to be healthy. The mind and body aren't separated- and neither should the health-care delivery system- especially for folks with a serious mental illness. Folks with a serious mental illness die more than 25 years earlier than the general [...]
The tragedy in Connecticut has reminded us all about how important mental health and mental health treatment is to ensure that we have a society that functions in a way that we’d all like. To be truly effective, a behavioral and mental health system needs to make sure parents, teachers, doctors and emergency department staff, [...]
Back in 2009, AZ had the 9th highest rate of suicide in the U.S. In that year 1,060 Arizonans took their own lives- so it’s easy to see why suicide prevention is an agency priority and is featured in our Strategic Map as a Winnable Battle. Since we’re responsible for the state’s behavioral health system- [...]
This is one to remember. SBIRT is an acronym for a behavioral health intervention that stands for “Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment”. The technical definition is “ … a comprehensive, integrated, public health approach to the delivery of early intervention and treatment services for persons with substance use disorders…” A more metaphorical (is that [...]
