HomeMy WebLinkAboutCities Thrive Coalition - The Week in Review 0CITY, COUNTY, AND STATE NEWS
IN: Indiana Leaders Stress Mental Health Awareness Amid Pandemic: Anxiety, depression and other mental
health conditions have become more prevalent among Hoosiers since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the
state's top health officials said in calling for renewed attention on mental health resources. Many of those
reporting mental health woes are affected by COVID-19 itself, Jennifer Sullivan, secretary of the state’s Family
and Social Services Administration, said during Gov. Eric Holcomb’s weekly briefing Wednesday on the state’s
coronavirus response. That includes dealing with loss and fear, disruption to daily life with recurrent needs for
quarantine and isolation, changes to school and work schedules, unexpected illness of friends and family, and
disruption to normal social supports.
ST. LOUIS, MO: New St. Louis City program to divert mental health calls away from 911: Over the next
month, St. Louis City will roll out a new and innovative program meant to help alleviate the strain on 911
dispatchers and potentially save lives. It’s a twofold program: In addition to transferring some emergency calls
to trained mental health professionals, in cases where a police officer still needs to be dispatched to a scene,
they will now be accompanied by a behavioral health professional. The effort to de-escalate and have someone
other than a police officer respond to some scenes has been a call from activists and those in support of the
Defund the Police movement.
OK: Oklahoma receives waiver to provide mental health, addiction services to more patients
Officials say that more Oklahomans will now be able to receive mental health and addiction services.
Oklahoma is one of only seven states to receive an Institution for Mental Diseases waiver for serious mental
illness and addiction from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Officials say the waiver gives the
state authority to provide medically necessary residential treatment, facility-based crisis stabilization and
inpatient treatment services, within IMDs, for Medicaid beneficiaries with serious mental illness, serious
emotional disturbances or substance use disorders.
CA: California paves the way for certification of mental health peer support providers: In September, California
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that paves the way to expand the use of mental health peer providers by
setting up a state certification process. That’s expected to cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars to run
every year, but could also reduce costly inpatient hospitalizations. The idea behind mental health peer support is
this: People who live with a mental illness help others with psychiatric conditions.
IOWA CITY, IA: Iowa City's new police chief, Dustin Liston, sees opportunity in restructuring department:
How the Iowa City Police Department moves forward with direction from the city council to address systemic
racism will in part depend on one person: Dustin Liston, the city's new police chief. Effective Monday, Liston
will be responsible for the department's 82 sworn officers and 30 non-sworn personnel, developing the budget,
implementing policies and procedures and steering the department through a city-mandated restructuring to
community policing. In the city's preliminary plan, recommendations include diverting calls to mental health
professionals and hiring a social worker to ride along with a police officer to respond to mental health-related
calls.
NATIONAL
In Mental Health Play, Centene To Buy Magellan Health For $2.2 Billion
Centene said it will buy Magellan Health for $95 per share in cash for a “total enterprise value of $2.2 billion”
in a move to integrate the medical health benefits it already sells with behavioral health offerings.
Centene has already been growing into a larger company as Americans sign up for Medicaid, the health
insurance for low income Americans it manages via contracts with states and individual coverage under
the Affordable Care Act known as Obamacare.
There is a critical need for a fundamentally better approach to supporting people with complex, chronic
conditions through better integration of physical and mental health care,” Centene chairman and chief
executive Michael Neidorff said in a statement Monday morning announcing the deal.
CDC Issues Recommendations After Record-Setting Period for OD Deaths
Recent provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that about 81,230 drug
overdose deaths occurred in the U.S. between June 2019 and May 2020—the highest number of overdose
deaths in a 12-month period in U.S. history.
In light of its findings, CDC offered the following recommendations:
Expand the provision and use of naloxone and overdose prevention education. This includes healthcare
providers and community leaders raising awareness about: the changing availability geographically of
illicit fentanyl, co-use of fentanyl and other illicit substances, infrequent mixing of illicit fentanyl into
supplies of cocaine and methamphetamine.
Expand access to and provision of SUD treatment. CDC encourages providers to treat opioid with
FDA-approved medications and ensure treatment access, especially for individuals transitioning in from
institutional settings. For stimulant use disorders, CDC recommends psychosocial therapies combined
with cognitive behavioral therapy.
Intervene early with individuals at high risk for overdose. Health departments and harm reduction
organizations are encouraged to link at-risk people with care and track their retention in programs, and
consider expanding peer navigator programs or recovery coaches. CDC recommends that public safety
officials divert individuals with low-level drug offenses to case management and supportive
wrap-around services instead of incarceration.
Improve detection of overdose outbreaks due to fentanyl, fentanyl analogs or other drugs. Public health
departments are asked to track trends in drug supply and overdoses using local, state and federal data
systems and toxicological testing. Medical examiners and coroners should screen specimens for fentanyl
and fentanyl analogs, and other novel psychoactive substances.
WEEKEND READING
WALL STREET JOURNAL: Opioid Use Hits Construction Industry as Overdoses Soar
THE HILL: Congress, this autistic citizen implores you to pass the Mental Health Justice Act of 2020
CNN: Mental health is one of the biggest pandemic issues we'll face in 2021
USA TODAY: Amid coronavirus pandemic, teachers’ mental health suffers in ways they’ve never experienced
The information compiled in this email originated from the following news sources: WFYI News, KMOV News, KFOR News, Marketplace, Ames Tribune, Forbes,
and Psych Congress**