NJAMHAA 75th Anniversary

16 75 th Anniversary gave a powerful presentation to the Assembly Finance Committee, which was chaired by Rodney Frelinghuysen, who committed to salary upgrades over three years. In 2006, one of his staff was stabbed multiple times by a client; it was almost fatal. That incident motivated John to create a NJAMHAA Safety Committee, which he chaired. The group consisted of nearly 30 providers from around the state who developed contract recommendations to help ensure the safety of both staff and clients and presented them to the Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services and the Division of Child Behavioral Health Services (now the Children’s System of Care). Many of these recommendations are still applicable. For example, enhanced services for people in high-risk situations should include having two staff members at each outreach, home visit, and counseling service, and during client transport, as well as increased monitoring of clients’ behavioral health. Another NJAMHAA committee, which Monahan also started, focused on integrated care. In the 2010s, the committee developed a white paper on the need for disease management. This led to the development of the Behavioral Health Home model, for which the committee both provided input and helped rewrite regulations in February 2012 to enable ambulatory care centers to provide integrated care. NJAMHAA’s Pioneers (continued) In response to NJAMHAA’s advocacy, DHS established a Homeless Services Workgroup that included several NJAMHAA members and Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMAHS) began to collaborate with NJAMHAA to launch a pilot project for telepsychiatry. In addition, DMHAS agreed to work with NJAMHAA to improve communication between staff at state psychiatric hospitals and community-based agencies and explore additional solutions to ensure that individuals receive the most appropriate services. These initiatives were in addition to NJAMHAA’s quarterly meetings and ongoing written correspondence with DHS Commissioner Jennifer Velez, other leadership and DHS Division Directors. Also in FY2013, ongoing advocacy with the Department of Children and Families (DCF) about the transitions of services from the Department of Human Services (DHS) to DCF: In addition to continuing to hold quarterly meetings with DCF leadership, NJAMHAA reached out to leaders of the Children’s System of Care (CSOC) to ensure that providers of children’s services had opportunities to express concerns, illustrate challenges and their impact, recommend solutions and work with the state to implement them. The Children’s Committee also met with leadership from the Division of Developmental Disabilities, to further augment NJAMHAA’s advocacy to ensure smooth transitions and continuity of care.” NJAMHAA successfully advocated for the elimination of proposed restrictions to Medicaid eligibility and copayments for non-emergent use of emergency rooms. FY2012 “ NJAMHAA’s staff have ‘carried the torch’ for New Jersey’s consumers, families and the professionals who strive to serve those in need of our services. We recognize in these most dire of economic times that without NJAMHAA’s continuous advocacy, our system of care would have fared far worse that what we have experienced in 2010. ” Jim Romer, MDiv Screening Director Emeritus, RWJBarnabas Health Behavioral Health Network Public awareness of mental health issues increased and the demand for better mental health care began. While there was some progress toward eliminating stigma, there were also many examples of the opposite in the media (e.g., One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest ). Teletherapy was introduced. 1971 Criteria for the diagnosis of alcoholism were published. FY2013