From NAMI Cape Cod & The Islands to all of you and your families...
We wish you a happy and peaceful Thanksgiving.
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Note: We are delighted with the response we are getting to this workshop. Seats are limited, so register now!
Think Differently: A New Approach for Parenting, Teaching and Treating Children with Behavioral Issues
We are thrilled to announce that NAMI CC&I is sponsoring a free all day training led by Dr. Stuart Ablon of Massachusetts General Hospital entitled Think:Kids Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS)
on Saturday December 5 in Hyannis - 9:00 - 3:30 in Hyannis
Think:Kids is a revolutionary evidence-based approach for helping children with behavioral issues. Challenging behavior has traditionally been thought of as willful and goal oriented which has led to approaches that focus on motivating better behavior using reward and punishment. If you have used these techniques, and they haven't worked, this workshop is for you! Through lecture, videos, case examples and role play this training will help shift your thinking and the way you deal with challenging behavior. At Think:Kids they say it is not a matter of will but a lack of the thinking skills that create the difficult behavior. CPS helps adult caretakers learn to resolve problems in a collaborative, mutually satisfying way.
Dr. Ablon is the Director of Think:Kids in the Department of Psychiatry at MGH, as well as Associate Clinical Professor at Harvard Medical School
He co-authored Treating Explosive Kids.
While the program is free, registration is required. Lunch is included.
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Become An Advocate--Every Person Counts
Help NAMI Mass Pass House Bill #787
An Act to Require Health Care Coverage for the Emergency Psychiatric Services
House Bill #787, filed by Representative Ruth Balser, would drastically expand access to life-saving emergency mental health services. Currently, only individuals with MassHealth or who are uninsured have guaranteed access to mental health crisis and stabilization services through the Emergency Service Providers, or ESPs. This Bill requires all insurance providers to cover these services.
ESPs are mobile teams of clinicians that provide behavioral health crisis assessment, intervention, and stabilization services to both children and adults. They go out into the community and meet with people where they feel most comfortable, connecting people to appropriate supports so that they can maintain stability in the community. ESPs are vital resources that provide robust services in the least costly, most effective setting,
Without access to ESP services, children and adults in a mental health crisis must endure a trip to the Emergency Room - an experience that can be traumatic and costly. In an even worse scenario, a mental health crisis can trigger police involvement and an unnecessary arrest. Having access to the community-based emergency psychiatric services provided by the ESPs can prevent both of these outcomes.
- Mental illnesses and/or substance abuse disorders make up one of every eight emergency department cases in the U.S. according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
- ER visits for behavioral health in 2010 cost over $76.4 million ($76,435,186) for 141,677 visits that year
- ESP services are less expensive than emergency room visits. Generally insurers pay $480 to $530 per ESP encounter. By contrast, emergency room visits for behavioral health cost $580-$700. Inpatient stays are even more costly. A night in a crisis stabilization bed (a service of the ESPs) costs $560 less than an inpatient stay.
- A study of ESPs in Minnesota found that for every dollar spent on Crisis Stabilization services (ESPs), there is a $2-$3 savings in hospitalization costs.
- Specifics
NAMI Mass supports House Bill #787 because ESPs are proven to help people access treatment. This legislation is necessary to address the disparity in access to care for mental health emergencies by requiring all insurance providers to cover services by Emergency Service Providers, or ESPs. This legislation was heard by the Joint Committee on Financial Services on November 5th, and NAMI Mass needs your help in getting it released favorably.
The Bottom Line
Emergency psychiatric services are a vital preventative resource. They not only improve the health and stability of people with behavioral health needs, help people access needed supports to live in the community, but they reduce the need for more costly emergency services. Massachusetts is facing a crisis of access to mental health care. Passing this legislation will strengthen a life-saving resource and improve the health and well-being of thousands.
to Help NAMI Mass Pass House Bill# 787 - Act to Require Health Care Coverage for the Emergency Psychiatric Services. Ask your legislator to weigh in with the Joint Committee on Financial Services to get this bill reported favorably.
Thank You for Your Advocacy!
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From The Treatment Advocacy Center
A Major Victory for Mental Health Reform
ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA - The Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act (HR 2646) made it out of the health subcommittee markup yesterday with all provisions intact to help the most severely mentally ill.
Introduced by Representatives Tim Murphy (R-PA) and Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), this landmark bill has the tremendous bipartisan support of 162 Representatives, and focuses on mental health reform for those with severe mental illness and their families who are struggling to get necessary care for their loved one.
"The whole point of advancing mental health reform is to help people most in need - the severely mentally ill, particularly people who may not understand they have an illness," said Treatment Advocacy Center Executive Director John Snook. "Keeping these vital provisions intact means that for the first time, evidence-based mental health services will be targeted to help those with severe mental illness and the families who care for them."
Key provisions for the most severely ill that will remain in the bill as it advances include:
- Creates an Assistant Secretary of Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders to coordinate efforts and elevate the importance of mental health and severe mental illness in the federal government;
- Awards funding to states and local jurisdictions to implement lifesaving, evidence-based treatment programs, called "assisted outpatient treatment" (AOT) laws for people who are too sick to maintain treatment themselves;
- Reforms the IMD exclusion to increase the availability of psychiatric inpatient beds; and
- Clarifies HIPAA to ensure mental health professionals are legally permitted to share critical diagnostic criteria and treatment information with parents or caregivers of patients with serious mental illness.
At yesterday's markup, lawmakers heard from an audience of families who have felt powerless to prevent their loved ones' deterioration. Mothers of children battling mental illness were among those who attended the committee markup to show their support for the bill, wearing neon pink stickers that said "Show Compassion Not Politics" urging members to keep provisions that would protect their loved ones.
Tanya Shuy, a Maryland resident who lost her 26-year-old daughter, Caitlyn, to suicide this year said she is determined to see a change in the system that sent her daughter to the grave.
Maintaining the bill's focus on severe mental illness during the markup process was one of the most important steps toward meaningful mental health reform. After nearly 12 hours, the bill moved to the Energy and Commerce Committee with a bipartisan vote of 18 ayes and 12 nays.
To become law, the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act also requires approval by the Energy and Commerce Committee, the House of Representatives, the Senate, and President Obama.
The Treatment Advocacy Center is among the many groups who applaud Representatives Murphy and Johnson. We also applaud the mental health advocates and families affected by serious mental illness for rallying together during this watershed moment for mental health reform and giving a voice to the voiceless.
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AOT Gains In Massachusetts
An Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) amendment filed by state Senator Ken Donnelly was accepted in the final Senate budget, adding $250,000 to fund continuation of an AOT pilot program. The renewed pilot program now allows individuals with court orders mandating treatment to participate, effectively reaching those who are most liked to become hospitalized or incarcerated.
The Treatment Advocacy Center continues to work closely with Senator Donnelly on Senate Bill 1030, which would, for the first time, create statewide authorization for assisted outpatient treatment
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SUPPORT NAMI CCI
SHOP AT AMAZON SMILE
Amazon donates 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to the charitable organization of your choice. Support NAMI by starting your shopping at smile.amazon.com. Use the link on the banner.
AmazonSmile is the same Amazon you know. Same products, same prices, same service.
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Another Way to Support NAMI CCI
Three Floors Productions' Halcyone Hurst will be holding an eclectic concert on Saturday, December 12, 2015 at the Atlantic House in Provincetown. There will be several singers, each with her own style.
A portion of ticket sales will be donated to NAMI CCI.
Visit their website for more details.
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Resilience by Jessie Close with Pete Earley
Resilience is a powerful and compelling true story written by Jessie Close and Pete Earley that was published earlier this year. In spite of a life of privilege and opportunity, at 15 Jessie's life started to fall apart. Not properly diagnosed or treated appropriately until she was almost fifty, she writes of an out of control life of addiction, failed marriages and the struggle to help her son with mental illness.
Jessie is the younger sister of Glenn Close, an award-winning actor. Glenn contributed several chapters to the book and writes candidly that the family never understood what was happening. It wasn't until Jessie feared she would take her own life that she opened up to her family and was given the proper treatment.
In recovery, and frustrated with the stigma she and her family faced with a mental heath diagnosis, Jessie asked Glenn for help.
In response, Glenn created a public service announcement entitled, "Change a Mind About Mental Illness". It was directed by Ron Howard and was filmed inside Grand Central Station. The film begins with hundreds of passengers hurrying through the crowded lobby. In pairs, people slowly start to appear wearing white T-shirts with blue lettering. Against the dark clothes the others are wearing the white T-shirts stand out. The first pair read MOM and SCHIZOPHRENIA, the next two PTSD and BATTLE BUDDY; the next pair was DEPRESSION and BETTER HALF. Jessie Close's son Calen appears with two young women. Their T-shirts read SCHIZOPHRENIA, SISTER and COUSIN. The T-shirts that Glenn and Jessie were wearing read BIPOLAR and SISTER. At one point Glenn puts her arms around her sister and says, "Change a mind about mental illness and you can change a life." In the last moments of the PSA the white T-shirts change to dark colors so each person blends into the crowd. Among the many messages the PSA delivers, it encourages us to support and stand up for our friends and loved ones who have a mental illness and to work to end the stigma.
Since the PSA first aired in 2009, Jessie has continued to work to end the stigma associated with mental illness and has received many awards honoring her efforts including one from NAMI. Jessie writes a regular blog for BringChange2Mind.org, an anti-stigma organization started by Glenn.
Pete Earley is the author of Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness and has been a longtime advocate for mental health reform and a supporter of NAMI.
Book reviewed by Deb Rausch
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Tidbits...
Reminder: Tonight
Dance In the Rain Underground Asylum Coffee House Event
NAMI CC&I is sponsoring this free event on Nov.19 from 5:30-9:30 at the Double Tree Inn in Hyannis. Meet with State Representative Timothy R. Whelan & Dr. Jeffery Rediger of McLean Hospital/Harvard/Oprah Winfrey Show. Enjoy refreshments at the "Freudian Sips" food bar.
This event is for peers, mental health and art professionals, first responders, LGBT, health, faith and business professionals and the community at large.
For more information:
www.danceintherain-wpa.org
Dance In the Rain also holds peer workshops, and an exciting new concept "Bridging the Gap" for peers and families together. Visit their website for more information.
Visit Our New and Evolving Website
We are continuing to update our website with helpful information and look to you for suggestions. Did you know that if you press the YouTube button on the Home Page, you will be taken to a site offering many informative videos on various mental health subjects.
NAMI Collaborates
We have been very busy getting the word out about NAMI, mental health needs in general and Think:Kids:
- Jackie spoke at the Hyannis Rotary Club, Cape Community Business Partners, Community Health Center of Cape Cod
- Jackie met with leaders of the YMCA to discuss a potential workshop on the connection between diabetes and mental health
- On Nantucket, Jackie spoke to the Police Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) group
- Jackie & Deb spoke with Pat Durgin at Cape Psych to see how NAMI could help families while their loved ones were hospitalized.
- Jackie & Deb also spoke at the Cape Cod Early Learning Network
- Jackie met with the Director of the Council of Churches
- Jackie, Deb & Arlene attended Philanthropy Day and had a chance to catch up with some NAMI funders
- Deb & Arlene attended focus groups sponsored by the Community Health Center in Mashpee to discuss the mental health needs of children and the elderly and how CHC could help to meet those needs
Family to Family
Teacher training is being scheduled in January. Please contact Deb Rausch at the office if you are interested in being a Family to Family teacher. There is a tremendous need for Family to Family across the Cape and Islands but we do not have enough teachers to meet the demand, especially on the lower and outer Cape. Vetting and training are required for this important volunteer position.
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