We had a productive “Request For Information (RFI)” session this week regarding our ”Recovery Through Whole Health, the Regional Behavioral Health Authority with Health Homes” project. About 150 folks attended the session- including potential bidders, members of the behavioral health provider community and peers and family members. We’ll be using the information from the session [...]
We’ve had plans to change how we think about security at the Hospital for the last several months. Our careful planning and organizing is paying off- as we’ve implemented many of our plans already and are turning the key on other reforms in the coming weeks and months. It’s definitely been a busy place at [...]
This week marks the 50th anniversary of National Poison Prevention Week. For the first time ever- poisoning surpassed car crashes as the number one cause of injury deaths in AZ and more than 2,000 kids had to go to emergency rooms last year from unintentional poisoning. Kids under 5 had the highest rates of non-fatal emergency department visits from poisoning. For more [...]
We recently held a series of focus groups and interviews to obtain input from persons with Serious Mental Illnesses (peers) and their family members regarding the integration of physical healthcare and behavioral healthcare services in partnership with St. Luke’s Health Initiative and AHCCCS, and several behavioral health peer-run organizations and peer and family members. The [...]
Check our excellent new web page about the history of the AZ State hospital. The stuff on the new hospital history page is fascinating. One of the things that struck me is that the issues of concern to the Superintendent of the Hospital 100 years ago were remarkable similar to today. The 100 year old [...]
We’ll be having a “Request For Information” session regarding our “ Recovery Through Whole Health, the Regional Behavioral Health Authority with Health Homes” project (a.k.a. the upcoming Request for Proposal for behavioral health services in Maricopa County) on March 21 from 1- 5 pm at the Radisson City Center at 3600 N. 2nd Ave. in Phoenix. We’ll [...]
Dr. Nelson wrote a great blog this week that discusses the behavioral health aspects of the Governor’s 2012 State of the State Address which was followed by the release of her policy agenda called The Four Cornerstones of Reform: Centennial Edition. Please visit Dr. Nelson’s blog for the details of the Governor’s remarks about behavioral [...]
Last January 8th, the world was horrified by the events in Tucson Arizona. A mass shooting in a supermarket parking lot on a Saturday morning – 19 people shot, 6 died. As tragic as this event was, it could have been worse had the emergency medical care providers and trauma team not been prepared. It [...]
Looking forward, 2012 is going to be another busy year for all of us. During the last Deputy/Assistant Director meeting, managers shared the biggest priorities for the next six months and I will share a few of the highlights throughout this week in our blog. One key focus that echoed throughout everyone’s summary was an [...]
There's a well-known quote attributed to Abe Lincoln that goes something like this: "Give me 6 hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first 4 sharpening the axe." Maybe somebody will someday quote me as saying: "Give us 20 months to transform the delivery of behavioral health and primary care services to address the [...]
