NJAMHAA-70th-anniversary-publication

20 2015 - NJAMHAA created the Hospital Community Integration Council. - NJAMHAA helped ensure that a bill allowing individuals receiving medication assisted treatment to enroll in Drug Court was signed into law as a statewide program. - NJAMHAA persuaded the Department of Children and Families (DCF) to rescind most of the provisions of the Social Service Language Amendments. - NJAMHAA played a large role in shaping legislation for the expansion of Early Intervention Support Services and screening centers. 2014 - A dozen New Jersey state bills focusing on access to SUD treatment and including NJAMHAA’s recommendations were either signed into law or passed by one or both houses. - NJMHI started to implement what would become a very successful three-year training series focused on evidence based practices for treating veterans, active military and their families. 2015 - New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed into law a bill that requires the Department of Corrections and DHS to share the authority over prison-based treatment centers, and a bill to improve conditions in boarding homes and other shelters. 2014 - President Barack Obama signed into law the Excellence in Mental Health Act, which created a Certi ed Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHC) demonstration program. - The rules regarding pre-existing conditions in the A ordable Care Act went into e ect. - Alexa was invented and provided many uses, including searching information on the Internet. In 2000, the Children’s System of Care Initiative was launched by the New Jersey Department of Human Services (DHS). That same year, on the national lev- el, the Children’s Health Act of 2000 reauthorized the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Admin- istration’s (SAMHSA’s) programs to improve mental health and substance use disorder (SUD) treatment services for children and adolescents. Also in 2000, NJAMHAA established the New Jersey Mental Health Institute (NJMHI) to promote quality mental health services and battle stigma. Details on NJMHI and its initiatives and impact, which has reached nationally and internationally, begin on page 64. Around the same time, NJAMHAA’s Chief Financial Officers Practice Group was created and in 2001, the participants’ advocacy resulted in contract reform to the state system, giving providers additional flexibil- ity in the use of their funding. “We emphasized that mental health agencies are businesses and need to operate as businesses,” said Jim Cooney, MSW, LCSW, a former NJAMHAA Board Chair and currently CEO of Ocean Mental Health Services, who launched the CFO Practice Group. “In response to our advoca- cy, the state built flexibility into contracts and many of those provisions, particularly the ability to move money around in our budgets, live with us today. The Department of Children and Families (DCF) adopted these reforms when it was split off from DHS,” he added. More information about this and other practice groups, which provide members with opportunities to network and contribute to NJAMHAA’s advocacy efforts, begins on page 38. On the national front in 2001, President Bill Clinton ordered all health plans in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program to begin parity coverage for treatment of mental illness. Later that year, the horrific events of 9/11 occurred and NJAMHAA took a leading role, communicating with media, with Debra Wentz appearing on The Today Show as a guest of Katie Couric, and serving as a referral and informa- tion source.