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July 23, 2012

Conference Update: Four Weeks to Go! 

2012 Conference Logo
2012 NAMI CA Annual Statewide Conference 
 

When: Friday, August 17th & Saturday, August 18th

Where: Marriot Hotel, Irvine, CA

 

The Conference Agenda has been posted at NAMI California. Organize your plans! Discover who is speaking, on what topic, and when.

Read about our speakers.

 

Register! 

 

Hope to see you there!
NAMI CAN!

Increased Health Care Coverage - California's Health Benefit Exchange's Role

NAMI California strongly supports access to health care services. As we learn more about the new opportunities that will be available in our state as of January 1, 2014, we will let you know.

 

The poorest residents will receive Medi-Cal and it will be expanded to cover childless adults. It will be specifically addressed in a future article. Those above the poverty line will find a menu of subsidized private options at different prices, from a "platinum" plan with higher premiums but lower deductibles down to a "bronze" selection that has lower premiums but requires the buyer to accept more risk.

 

All told, the exchange expects to connect about 2 million Californians with health insurers by 2019. Starting in 2014, it will be California's vehicle to deliver subsidized care to people who earn income up to four times the federal poverty level, currently $92,200 for a family of four.

 

California was the first state to establish a health care exchange after the federal law was passed and signed. The exchange is now

  • attracting potential subscribers,
  • building the enrollment system and
  • selecting the health insurers and the plans they will provide.

To ensure it can open its doors in January 2014 with as many consumers as possible, the exchange plans to begin registering people in October 2013 with a system that can make health care enrollment as easy as buying books online. The exchange will target working poor and middle-class Californians who earn too much to qualify for Medi-Cal but generally lack access to health coverage at work.

 

The information above is largely from a July 17th article in The California Bee. To see the entire article, click here.

 

Also, we have written about essential health benefits in the past but expect to see more because "there is no health without mental health."

 

This bears repeating:

Help People Switch Now to Electronic Federal Benefit Payments.

 

- - Bettie Reinhardt, MPH

NAMI CAN! Coordinator

[email protected] 

State Peer Certification Planning Call Wednesday, July 25

We will discuss family and parent certifications definitions in other states.  I have put together a draft document (attached) of what I researched on family/youth and parent peer specialist definitions, that I could find. Please review this document and be prepared to discuss it on our call. 

 

-- Karin Lettau Schoeneich, MS
Working Well Together, Southern RegionTechnical Assistance Coordinator  

Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission Meeting, July 26

Where: Citizen Hotel
926 J Street
Sacramento, CA 95814

Call-in Number: 866-817-6550
Participant Code: 3190377
 
Please view the agenda and details at MHSOAC. Other meeting materials will be posted there soon.

Persons interested in attending, or requiring further information should contact Kathleen Derby at [email protected]

MHSA Statewide PEI Projects: How best to communicate what's happening  

Please join the MHSA Statewide PEI Projects Stakeholder Teleconferences:

 

4:00-5:00PM

July 23rd, August 6th and 20th, 2012

Phone: 877-339-2412

Code: 481-063-7178

A CalMHSA Ad Hoc Advisory Committee has been created to provide feedback to the CalMHSA staff and officers to address the proceeding question and will meet over the phone every two weeks through August.  The Ad Hoc Committee has a non-county stakeholder participant, Joseph Robinson, who will convene a conference call with community stakeholders every two weeks to disseminate information from the Ad Hoc Committee meeting and solicit feedback from stakeholders. Those calls will be from 4:00-5:00PM Mondays July 23, August 6 and 20. Stakeholders can provide feedback by participating in the call or by emailing [email protected].

Major discussion areas/questions:

 

Could the same message be targeted to both Boards of Supervisors and the general public?  If not, which group is the priority? The Ad Hoc Committee felt it would be difficult and proposed to use the statewide brochure to target the general public and stakeholders and the regional pieces and fact sheets to be more outcomes-focused and used with Board of Supervisors.

 

The web pages on the CalMHSA website would include a combination of information from the statewide booklets, as well as regional and/or county fact sheets. Counties could update and localize information and import it into a template and re-print on their own.

 

There is a need to research possible translation options, at minimum include Spanish translation. The website/ web pages would support the development of local brochures geared towards specific information for use locally but would require technical assistance for counties on entering the information and possibly some counties would not have the capacity to participate in this opportunity actively.

 

Visual look of the project will include stakeholder art - similar to the CalMHSA website and from local communities across the state.

CalMHSA Advisory Committee Stakeholder Opening

The CalMHSA Advisory Committee is recruiting for an open stakeholder position, and CalMHSA is currently accepting referrals and applications for a two-year term. The Program Advisory Committee serves as an advisory body to the CalMHSA Board and/or Executive committee.   
 
The California Mental Health Services Authority (CalMHSA) is an Independent Administrative and Fiscal Governments Agency focused on the efficient delivery of California Mental Health Projects. Member counties jointly develop, fund, and implement mental health services, projects, and educational programs at the state, regional, and local levels.

CalMHSA seeks candidates who represent one or more of the following priority areas:   
  • Bay Area
  • Underserved Communities
  • Native Americans
  • Older Adults
  • Health/Mental Health Background
  • Consumer/family

Click for application.

 

If you have any questions or would like to submit your application for the position, please contact Laura Li at [email protected] or (916) 859-4818.

California Mental Health Planning Council Recruitment

The CMHPC is recruiting for new membership. We are presently looking to fill several slots for:
  • 3 Direct Consumers
  • 1 Family Member
  • 1 Provider/Professional

Join the CMHPC and help us achieve our mission of evaluating the mental health system for accessible and effective care. We advocate for an accountable system of responsive services that are strength-based, recovery-oriented, culturally competent, and cost-effective. To achieve these ends, the Planning Council educates the general public, the mental health constituency, and legislators. Membership commitment is for three years and all council members are required to participate in four 3-day meetings a year in different regions of the State (the CMHPC pays for travel, lodging, and provides a daily per diem). Committee members are also required to serve on a minimum of two committees within the CMHPC at these meetings. Please click the link below for an application and more information. 

 

Application:   PDF  |  Word

 

There will be three committees to choose from:  Legislation and Advocacy, Health Care Reform, and Continuous Systems Improvement. 

Spanish Translation of CA Strategic Plan on Reducing MH Stigma, Discrimination

The California Strategic Plan on Reducing Mental Health Stigma and Discrimination has been translated into Spanish and is now available at the following web site: http://dmh.ca.gov/PEIStatewideProjects/StigmaAndDiscriminationReduction.asp.

 

This Plan was produced by the Department of Mental Health with the guidance of a 56-member Advisory Committee and adopted by the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission in 2009. The Plan was designed to serve as a road map to assist California in initiating and developing local and state efforts to reduce stigma and discrimination associated with people living with mental illness.

 

Orange County Community Forum on the MHSA, Sept. 13  

The next MHSOAC Community Forum on the Mental Health Services Act (Prop 63) will be held in Orange County on September 13, 2012. We hope to see you at this free community event!

 

September 13, 2012 
3:30 PM - 7:00 PM

Delhi Center
505 East Central Avenue
Santa Ana, CA 92707
(714) 489-9600

 

View The Event Flyer and Letter of Invitation or go to http://www.mhsoac.ca.gov/Meetings/Meetings.aspx.   

 

Additional materials:

Flyer en Espanol.

Flyer in Vietnamese.

Flyer in Arabic

 

Please RSVP directly to [email protected] and email [email protected] that you will be attending.

If You Paid for Paxil�, You Could Get a Payment from a Class Action Settlement

A class action settlement will provide money  to California residents who were 18 years old or
older and who paid for any portion of the price of  the prescription antidepressant Paxil� while living
in California from January 14, 1999 through January 1, 2003, and who qualify under the settlement
(these people are called "Class Members"). If you're  included, you may ask for a payment, or you can
exclude yourself from, or object to, the settlement.

The Superior Court for the State of California, County of Los Angeles will have a hearing to decide whether to approve the settlement so that payments can be issued. The lawsuit claims that GlaxoSmithKline falsely advertised and promoted Paxil� as being non-habit forming or non-addictive and that GlaxoSmithKline's advertisements and promotional materials failed to disclose the risk of symptoms from stopping or discontinuing Paxil�. GlaxoSmithKline denies each of these allegations.

Click here for details.

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Contact Information

Weekly Report

NAMI California
1851 Heritage Lane,  

Suite 150
Sacramento, CA 95815 

Phone: 916-567-0163 Fax: 916-567-1757
 

www.namicalifornia.org

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