The State Mental Health Planning Council Welcomes New leadership.

Commissioner Mikula appointed Danna Mauch, Ph.D. pictured, President and CEO of the Massachusetts Association for Mental Health, as a co-chair of the Council in August, following the retirement of Bernie Carey. Danna joins Anne Whitman of the Cole Resource Center and Metro Boston Recovery Learning Community and Jonathan Bowen-Leopold of Speaking of Hope.Org and the Youth Development Committee in leading the Council.

 

The State Mental Health Planning Council brings together the voices of many to act as a catalyst for change within the Department of Mental Health and the broader mental health system. Its diverse membership is comprised of peer leaders, family members, providers, advocates and program staff from DMH and various other state agencies. The Council was created in 1990 to fulfill an important requirement of SAMHSA's Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) Community Mental Health Services Block Grant Program, which provides approximately $10 million to the Commonwealth to provide community mental health services.

 

Prior to joining MAMH, Dr. Mauch served as senior fellow at Abt Associates Inc., Chief Administrative Officer for Comprehensive NeuroScience, Inc., President and CEO for Magellan Public Solutions, Inc., and Founder and President of Integrated Health Strategies, Inc.   In addition she served in several public sector roles, including Special Master for the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, Executive Director of the Rhode Island Department of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals, and Assistant Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health.

The first statewide meeting of Peer Mentors and Family Service Leaders (sometimes referred to as Family Partners) was held on September 29, 2015 in Westborough.  These leaders work in DMH Statewide Programs such as Intensive Residential Treatment Program (IRTP), Clinically Intensive Residential Treatment (CIRT) and Continuing Care Units (CCU),. This initial "meet and greet" was the first time this group of professionals gathered together to network with others doing similar work in similar settings, and share their new experiences.

DMH Receives Grant to Provide MISSION-Criminal Justice (MISSION-CJ) services

The Department of Mental Health Forensic Services is excited to announce that it has been selected by the Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance, through its Second Chance Act Reentry Program for Adults with Co-Occurring Substance Abuse and Mental Disorders solicitation, to receive a $600,000 two-year grant to provide MISSION-Criminal Justice (MISSION-CJ) services to 80 higher risk female and male offenders with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders in the Greater Springfield and Holyoke regions (BJA #2015-RW-BX-0006) . DMH partnered with the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the Hampden County Sheriff's Department, Behavioral Health Network, Inc. (BHN), the Department of Correction, the Department of Public Health, the Office of the Commissioner of Probation, and the Massachusetts Parole Board, and the state Medicaid office in applying for this grant. MISSION-CJ-West: Integrated Re-Entry and Peer Supports (MISSION-CJ: WI-RAPS) aims to provide reentry services and supports to identified inmates, pre and post-release, who have co-occurring disorders and higher risks/needs, utilizing trauma-informed approaches. MISSION-CJ services, including Dual Recovery Therapy, Critical Time Intervention, and Vocational Supports will be utilized to address the individual's needs, with treatment planning also examining opportunities for reducing risk of criminal recidivism. UMass Medical School will provide project management and program evaluation and BHN will deliver the clinical and peer-based MISSION-CJ services.

Pictured left to right: Jamie Eng, Atlantic Clubhouse Employment Coordinator and Nasser Hamdi, Atlantic House 2015 Hero

Over 115 guests filled the Special Olympics in Marlborough to honor the 13 unsung heroes at the Northeast Suburban Area Peer Leadership Committee's seventh annual "Celebrating Heroes Community Recognition Event" on October 7, 2015. This year's theme was the Semicolon Project demonstrating that "Our Stories are Not Over". The Semicolon Project is a movement dedicated to presenting hope and love for those struggling with depression, suicide, addiction and self - injury. The semicolon is used when an author could've chosen to end their sentence; but chose not to.

In celebration and recognition of National Adoption Month, the CBH Knowledge Center is sponsoring a FREE half-day workshop for Massachusetts behavioral health professionals on skills and strategies for working within adoption and complex families, with emphasis on communication that helps and hurts the people in adoption. Workshop participants will learn strategies for discussing adoption with youth and families and the value of gathering more information at the outset while working with a family and other professionals. The workshop will be lead by Joyce Maguire Pavao, Ed.D, an internationally noted consultant and coach on child welfare, adoption, team building, and training. She is a Lecturer in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and has consulted for various public and private child welfare agencies, adoption agencies, schools, and community groups, as well as probate and family court judges, lawyers, and clergy. Additionally, she has worked closely with individuals, couples, and families with adoption-related issues, foster care issues, guardianship and kinship, as well as complex families formed through reproductive technology, single parent families, gay and lesbian families, and families through remarriage.

In two surveys of its own cases (first conducted in 2008 and repeated in 2013) DMH found that children who are adopted under age 18 comprised over 30% of children who are in its residential programs. The Knowledge Center has worked wtih Dr. Pavao to create two resources for DMH case managers and others working with children who are adopted and their families. The first is an Adoption 101 tip sheet that describes "do's and don'ts" when working with youth and families, commonly used terms, and identifies some of the core issues in adoption. The second resource describes typical developmental tasks for youth who have been adopted with associated strategies for supporting youth to master these developmental issues. To download these resources visit the resources page at the Center's website at: www.cbhknowledge.center.