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NAME: Adult Mental Health Practice Group
DATE:May 19, 2015 / Time:
1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. / Presiding:
Harry Postel / Recorded By:
Shauna Moses
PRESENT: Milissa Aronson, Cindy Colton, Carolyn Dean (via conference call), Matt D’Oria (via conference call), Barbara Dunn, Charles Graham, Vionia Hageman (via conference call), Deborah Hartel (via conference call), Kelly Lauletta (via conference call), Elizabeth McClendon, Chris Mussell, Carolyn Perry (via conference call), Patrick Pierson (via conference call), Harry Postel, Jim Romer, Linda Rauh (via conference call), Lou Schwarcz (via conference call), Jennifer Smith, Jeffrey Wernock (via conference call), Barrett Young, John Zukauskas
Guests: Mary Lynne Reynolds, MPA, Executive Director, Mental Health Association in Southwestern N.J.; Ed Dobleman, Director, CIT-NJ
Staff: Shauna Moses, Debra Wentz
AGENDA ITEMS/ISSUE / DISCUSSION / ACTIONS TAKEN/ OUTCOME / TIME FRAME / WHO’S RESPONSIBLE
Approval of the minutes from the March 24, 2015 meeting / N/A / The minutes were m/s/p. / N/A / N/A
Crisis Inter-vention Training (CIT), Presen-tation by Mary Lynne Reynolds, Executive Dir-ector, Mental Health Associ-ation of South-western NJ, and Ed Dobleman, NJ CIT Director / Mary Lynne Reynolds and Ed Dobleman described the history and components of CIT. They emphasized that it involves more than the 40 hour curriculum that law enforcement, emergency medical, mental healthcare and other personnel complete. It involves building community collabor-ation.
They described the benefits, which include reducing stigma and incarceration and increasing access to services, in addition to reducing injuries to and casualties of consumers and police officers.
Mary Lynne stated that advocacy is needed to the Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) for expanded resources so that mental health providers can respond when police bring consumers to the providers’ doors. / Members are encouraged to obtain more information from www.CIT-NJ.org and the June/July issue of NJAMHAA News, which will include a feature article of Reynolds’ and Dobleman’s program of providing technical assistance for establishing CIT programs throughout the state.
A motion was seconded and passed to recommend to the NJAMHAA Board to add the following to NJAMHAA’s advocacy agenda: Requests for more resources for screening, mobile response and Early Intervention Support Services and for Crisis Intervention (continued) / Ongoing / Members
AGENDA ITEMS/ISSUE / DISCUSSION / ACTIONS TAKEN/ OUTCOME / TIME FRAME / WHO’S RESPONSIBLE
CIT presentation (continued) / Training system development; and that as the system moves to FFS, to keep contract funded support for non-billable services, such as early intervention engagement. / May 20, 2015 Board meeting [The Board accepted the recommenda-tion.] / Harry Postel
May 7, 2015 meeting about Medicaid contract cuts with DMHAS / Debra Wentz explained that some funding was being taken out of providers’ contracts based on projected revenue resulting from the Medicaid expansion. She reported that DMHAS Assistant Commissioner Lynn Kovich and CFO Matt Shaw acknowledged that the communication was unclear and that they offered to work with providers individually to correct projections and calculations. / NJAMHAA will continue to monitor the situation and its resolution and inform members of any changes. / Ongoing / Debra Wentz, Shauna Moses
May 14, 2015 meeting with the Department of Human Services (DHS) / Harry Postel reported that the supportive housing contract cuts and transition of subsidy management to the Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency were discussed. Under Fee-for-Service (FFS), contract funding will continue to cover damages to apartments and for maintaining vacancies and to maintain landlord relations in leased units. DMHAS will provide updates regularly through webinars for all staff levels.
DHS announced that transportation provided in partial care programs will be reimbursed at $7 each way, beginning July 1, 2015, and that DMHAS would consider allowing agencies to lease vehicles if that is a more feasible option than purchasing.
Acting Commissioner Beth Connolly offered to speak with the Attorney General about having judges accept written testimonies from psychiatrists and advanced practice nurses (APNs), which would help encourage providers to apply for forensic behavioral healthcare grants. She will also reinforce that judges need to follow psychiatrists’ and APNs’ recommendations to help ensure the safety of consumers’, their families’ and other community members. (continued) / Debra encouraged providers to speak with their contract analysts about one-time funding for vehicles and infra-structure expenses.
AGENDA ITEMS/ISSUE / DISCUSSION / ACTIONS TAKEN/ OUTCOME / TIME FRAME / WHO’S RESPONSIBLE
May 14, 2015 meeting with DHS (continued) / Roxanne Kennedy, Executive Director, Office of Managed Health Care, Division of Medical Assistance and Health Services, stated that in response to the proposal for a Mental Health Intensive Outpatient level of care, she is exploring a possible regulatory change that would allow for provision and billing of multiple outpatient services in one day. She explained that this would be more efficient than submitting the proposal through a State Plan Amendment to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Harry reported that DMHAS clarified that their Trauma Informed Care training is not identifying Mental Health First Aid as trauma-informed care and that the state is not mandating any specific type of training. However, DMHAS is making resources available on its website. One of these resources is the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) 57 for Trauma-Informed Care / In response to members’ feedback, Harry will ask Roxanne to also seek a regulatory change to allow for up to nine group sessions per week in outpatient services, compared to the current limit of three sessions.
Harry recommended that members obtain information on Trauma Informed Care from DMHAS’ website, under Major Initiatives. / Following this meeting
As needed / Harry Postel
Members
State Budget / Debra Wentz reported that Treasury will soon send checks for the one-time Community Provider Contract Adjustments and that providers will need to submit reports about how they are allocating these funds to their direct care staff.
Debra announced that Gov. Christie proposed preserved funding for children’s and adults’ services in the FY 2016 budget, as well as increases for the Olmstead settlements, substance use services, transferring individuals with developmental disabilities to the community. In addition, some outpatient mental health and substance use treatment rates will be increased in July to match the state FFS rates; these rates are not associated with the Myers & Stauffer rate study.
Upcoming Meeting Dates: July 14, 2015; Sept. 29, 2015; Nov. 24, 2015; Jan. 26, 2016; March 22, 2016; and May 24, 2016 – all from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. at NJAMHAA