SAAS UPDATE - February 4, 2010
| Greetings! Every new year brings new challenges but also new opportunities. For the addiction healthcare industry, 2010 is going to move into hyperdrive on both counts. Now that the final interim regulations for the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act have been released (click here for link to the regulations), implementation of the regulations will shift into high gear for organziations around the country. (Click here for information about our Illinois association's [IADDA] training on parity regulation implementation.) Healthcare reform, while not at all clear, will continue to be at the forefront of policy discussions with implications for the way we do business and the people we serve. SAAS and our lobbyists at Legal Action Center will continue to track this important issue for you. Stay tuned as this discussion continues to develop. Pam Hyde, SAMHSA's new administrator, will continue to share her vision and plans for the future of behavioral healthcare as she implements her top 10 Priorities (see below). SAAS has had the opportunity to meet with Administrator Hyde on several occasions and we will continue to work with her and with the SAMHSA staff on issues and concerns that are important to you and your membership. We have also had the opportunity to meet with leaders in our field over the last several weeks in state and national venues, and these discussions are stimulating ideas about where our field needs to focus our efforts as so many things are changing at all levels of our industry. We recognize as a field that changes are coming to the addiction healthcare field, many of which have been precipitated by the parity and healthcare reform debates. While changes of the magnitude that we are expecting can be frightening and many are tempted to resist out of fear of the unknown, now is the time for us to embrace these changes and prepare ourselves and our agenices for the future. Our success in the coming years will rely on our willingness and ability to meet these changes head on, enhance our capabilities and adapt to what lies ahead of us. While we do not know the specifics of so many of the changes we are anticipating, what we do know is that 2010 will bring change. It is now up to us how we will react and what role we will play. SAAS leaders represent some of the best and brightest of the stars working in our field. Contemplateing, planning, and implementing are what we are all about and leadership will transform our field to meet the future with success for our agencies, our staff, and the millions of people who rely on what we do every day. As always, thank you for what you do to serve individuals, families, and communities. You continue to make a difference. |
| The Latest for SAAS Members |
| Dinosaur Prevention
As the field of addiction services is morphing and moving toward more integration and partnering with traditional healthcare, SAAS leaders have identified a need to prevent agencies from becoming dinosaurs. Recognizing the need to support providers in these changing times, SAAS convened leaders from the addiction healthcare field to formulate and shape a vision and strategy to meet the coming demands for services. The business opportunities are abundant if we as a field are prepared. Many of our providers are already early adoptors in the practices necessary to engage and grow in a new environment. Many see what's coming and need help and support to not only survive, but thrive. That's what providers associations do: meet the needs of their members and move the field forward. Stay tuned for more information and ways to be involved and engaged as we develop strategies and materials for this major initiative. The train is moving-all aboard!! |
| SAAS/NIATx Partner to Recognize Innovation in Behavioral Healthcare
Innovations in addiction healthcare are happening around the country. Many organizations have developed and implemented innovative approaches to management or in the area of process improvement in response to internal or external changes in their service delivery environment. As a result of the need to adapt, organizations have created new protocols, procedures, and practices, or in some cases have evolved existing ways of doing business to meet their changing needs. These methods are exciting and are largely unrecognized by other managers, leaders, change agents, and organizations in and out of the field of addiction treatment and recovery. These same entities may greatly benefit from learning about and adapting these innovative approaches. The iAward recognizes agencies that are using innovative approaches and provides a venue for them to share how they have adapted to meet the changing needs of clients, staff, and the addiction healthcare field. Award recipients will receive a free registration and all travel expenses for the 2010 SAAS Annual Conference and NIATx Summit in Cincinnati, July 11-14, 2010. Award recipients will also be invited to a special recognition breakfast with a representative of SAMHSA leadership. |
| Shining a Light on Innovation!
Join us for the 2010 SAAS National Conference and Annual NIATx Summit The 2010 SAAS National Conference and Annual NIATx Summit is headed to historic Cincinnati, Ohio July 11-14. Mark your calendars now! Check out the redesigned conference website for 2010, updated with all of the latest information for Cincinnati. Registration is not open yet, but you can begin to make your hotel reservations TODAY! Visit www.saasniatx.net for all the latest on the upcoming conference. We are also in the process of recruiting sponsors and exhibitors. We would like to invite our SAAS members and their providers to exhibit at the 2010 conference. If you have a particular program you want to show off to the field or if you just want to showcase your organization, there are great rates available for SAAS members. Contact exhibit and sponsorship coordinator Angela Halvorson at angela@toplineprofessionalstrategies.com. |
| SAMHSA's 10 Strategic Initiatives SAMHSA's mission is to reduce the impact of substance abuse and mental illness on America's communities. Over the years SAMHSA has demonstrated that - prevention works, treatment is effective, and people recover from mental and substance use disorders.Behavioral health services improve health status and reduce health care and other costs to society. Continued improvement in the delivery and financing of prevention, treatment and recovery support services provides a cost effective opportunity to advance and protect the Nation' s health. To continue to improve the delivery and financing of prevention, treatment and recovery support services SAMHSA has identified 10 Strategic Initiatives to focus the Agency's work on people and emerging opportunities.The 10 Initiatives are described below with the Agency lead identified. 1. Prevention of Substance Abuse and Mental Illness (Fran Harding, Director, CSAP) Create prevention prepared communities and to focus on prevention of mental illness and substance abuse, focusing first on children and youth, and eventually serving individuals, families, peers, schools, businesses and communities across the lifespan. 2. Violence and Trauma (Kana Enomoto, Principal Senior Advisor to the Administrator) Reduce the behavioral health impacts of violence and trauma and integrate trauma-informed services in prevention and treatment programs in States and communities, and throughout the health service delivery system to address root causes of pervasive, harmful, and costly public health problems. 3. Military Families - Active, Guard and Veteran (Kathryn Power, Director, CMHS) Support of our service men and women and their families and communities by leading efforts to ensure needed behavioral health services are accessible and outcomes are successful. 4. Housing and Homelessness (Kathryn Power, Director, CMHS) Provide housing and reduce the barriers that homeless persons with mental and substance use disorders and their families experience when accessing programs that sustain recovery. 5. Jobs and Economy (Larke Huang, Senior Advisor to the Administrator) Use funding streams to boost employment opportunities in communities for people in need of jobs including people with mental and substance use disorders. 6. Health Insurance Reform Implementation (Ric Broderick, Deputy Administrator) Achieve equality with all other health conditions for the prevention and treatment of mental and substance use disorders. 7. Health Information Technology for Behavioral Health Providers (Westley Clark, Director, CSAT) Ensure the behavioral health provider network, including prevention specialists and consumer providers, fully participate with the general health care delivery system in the adoption of health information technology. 8. Behavioral Health Workforce - In Primary and Specialty Care Settings (Westley Clark, Director, CSAT) Provide a coordinated approach to address workforce development issues affecting the behavioral health service delivery community. 9. Data and Outcomes - Getting Results (Pete Delaney, Director, OAS) Realize an integrated data strategy that informs policy and measures program impact leading to improved outcomes for people in need of services. 10. Public Awareness and Support (Mark Weber, Director, Office of Communications) Change how mental health and substance abuse services are perceived so that people seek help for these conditions with the same urgency as any other health condition. |
| Grants and Funding Grants Available For Enhancing Adult Drug Court Services, Coordination and Treatment The Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) and the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) will award up $625,000 for programs that enhance drug-court services, coordination, and addiction treatment and recovery-support services. This program furthers the Departments of Justice's and Health and Human Services' mission by providing resources to state, local, and tribal governments and state, local, and tribal courts to enhance drug court programs and systems for nonviolent substance-abusing offenders. The February 11 application deadline is fast approaching--please click here for more details. A New Round of Access to Recovery Grants Announced The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA) Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) announce the availability of funds for Access to Recovery (ATR) grants. The ATR Program is designed to provide client choice among substance abuse clinical treatment and recovery support service providers, expand access to a comprehensive array of clinical treatment and recovery support options (including faith-based programmatic options), and increase substance abuse treatment capacity. Monitoring outcomes, tracking costs, and preventing waste, fraud and abuse to ensure accountability and effectiveness in the use of Federal funds are also important elements of the ATR program. Through the ATR grants, the Single-State Substance Abuse Agencies in the States, Territories, and the District of Columbia, Tribes and Tribal Organizations will have flexibility in designing and implementing voucher programs, consistent with proven models, to meet the needs of clients in their target regions. A major goal of the ATR program is to ensure that clients have a genuine, free, and independent choice among a network of eligible providers. Click here for eligibility requirements and application materials. ONCDCP and SAMHSA Team Up For Drug-Free Community Coalitions The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), in partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), has announced the availability of new Drug Free Communities (DFC) Support Program funding. ONDCP expects to award approximately $18.75 million for 150 new competing grants to support the efforts of community coalitions working to prevent and reduce substance use among youth. The deadline to submit DFC grantee applications is Friday, March 19, 2010. The DFC Support Program is a collaborative Federal program sponsored by ONDCP and administered in partnership with SAMHSA. The program aims to establish and strengthen communities, private nonprofit agencies, and Federal, state, local, and tribal governments and entities to collaborate and support community-based efforts to prevent and reduce youth substance use. "The Drug Free Communities Program reflects the Obama administration's commitment to preventing youth substance abuse," said Gil Kerlikowske, Director of National Drug Control Policy. "Community problems need community solutions, and when local leaders organize around their specific drug issues, we know they can make a difference in creating safer and healthier communities." In order to assist potential Drug Free Communities Support Program applicants through the grant process, ONDCP, in partnership with SAMHSA, has scheduled three live application workshops. Click here for the dates or to download the application. Funds Available To Promote Consumer Involvement In Restructuring Mental Health Systems SAMHSA will provide up to $8.9 million for five consumer and consumer-supporter technical assistance centers (TA centers) to strengthen and enhance consumer and directed approaches for adults with serious mental illness. The goals of this grant program include strengthening consumer organizations and leadership in states where such organizations do not exist or are underdeveloped, restructuring of the mental health system by promoting consumer-directed approaches and promoting skill development for consumers and activities that expand peer run alternatives. Three of the grants will be awarded to consumer TA Centers and two will go to consumer-supporter TA Centers. These programs will maximize consumer self-determination and recovery and assist people with serious mental illness by decreasing their dependence on expensive social services and avoiding psychiatric hospitalization. For more information or to download an application, click here. Grants to Expand Substance Abuse Treatment Capacity for Adult Drug Courts SAMHSA is accepting grant applications for programs to expand and enhance substance abuse treatment services in "problem solving" courts. The treatment drug court model will be used to provide alcohol and drug treatment, recovery support services, screening, assessment, case management, and program coordination. It is expected that approximately $2.5 million per year will be available to fund up to eight grants, administered by the Center for Substance Abuse.Applications are available on the SAMHSA website. |
| SAMHSA News Applications Available For 2010 Science and Service Awards SAMHSA has issued a call for applications for its 2010 Science and Service Awards, a national program that recognizes community-based organizations and coalitions that have shown exemplary implementation of evidence-based mental health and substance abuse interventions. Awards will be made in each of the five categories: substance abuse prevention, treatment of substance abuse and recovery support services, mental health promotion, treatment of mental illness and recovery support services, and co-occurring disorders. To be eligible for an award, an organization must have successfully implemented a recognized evidence-based intervention. Examples include those that are published in scientific literature and/or appear on a Federal and/or state registry of evidence-based interventions. All applications will be rated using the following four criteria: community need, sustainability, accurate implementation, and results. Independent experts will review and recommend for an award the top scoring submissions in each of the five categories. One or more reviewers may also make a site visit to finalists prior to the announcement of the award recipients. Complete information is available on the SAMHSA website. |
| Training Opportunities Upcoming Conference Addresses Needs of Mental Health, Alcohol, and Other Drug Programs Make plans now to attend the Tenth Annual Behavioral Health Information Management Conference and Exhibition, sponsored by the California Institute for Mental Health (CiMH), April 14-15, 2010. Uses of information technology and electronic data are fast becoming an integral part of our service system. This is the largest national conference on this topic for the behavioral health care field, and a critical source of practical and policy information to help us prepare for the future. Click here to view the complete program and registration details. 4th Annual National Conference on Women, Addiction, and Recovery: Thriving in Changing Times to be held SAAS is co-sponsoring the Fourth Annual National Conference on Women, Addiction, and Recovery: Thriving in Changing Times at the Chicago Marriott in downtown Chicago July 26-28, 2010. Save the date for this important and cutting-edge event. The Fourth National Conference on Women, Addiction and Recovery: Thriving in Changing Times is grounded in the principles of recovery and gender-responsive, trauma-informed care. The conference offers opportunities to explore a wide array of topics such as the following:
For more information on the 2010 National Conference on Women, Addiction and Recovery go to http://samhsawomensconference.org/abouttheconference.php |
| Research Report New Mechanism Underlying Cocaine Addiction Discovered Researchers have identified a key epigenetic mechanism in the brain that helps explain cocaine's addictiveness, according to research funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health. The study, published in the January issue of the journal Science, shows how cocaine affects an epigenetic process (a process capable of influencing gene expression without changing a gene's sequence) called histone methylation. These epigenetic changes in the brain's pleasure circuits, which are also the first impacted by chronic cocaine exposure, likely contribute to an acquired preference for cocaine. "This fundamental discovery advances our understanding of how cocaine addiction works," said NIDA Director Dr. Nora D. Volkow. "Although more research will be required, these findings have identified a key new player in the molecular cascade triggered by repeated cocaine exposure, and thus a potential novel target for the development of addiction medications." Visit the NIDA website for more on this important discovery and its promise for medication development. Latest National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services Released The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has released findings from the 2008 National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (N-SSATS). N-SSATS is an annual census of substance abuse treatment facilities that provides data on the location and characteristics of alcohol and drug abuse treatment services throughout the United States. It also provides information on the scope and nature of how these facilities and programs are used. Throughout the nation, the 13,688 eligible facilities that responded to the survey reported that a total of nearly 1.2 million clients were in treatment in their facilities on March 31, 2008. Private non-profit run facilities made up the bulk of treatment facilities (58%) while private for-profit facilities made up 29% of these services in 2008. The remaining facilities were operated by local governments (6%), state governments (3%), the Federal government (2%) and tribal governments (1%). Copies of this report and all its detailed findings are available for PDF download by clicking here. |
| About SAAS
The State Associations of Addiction Services (SAAS) is the leading national organization advocating on behalf of state associations of prevention, treatment, and recovery providers and the individuals and families they serve. For more information about SAAS programs and initiatives contact bvaughn@saasnet.org. |
