Creating a Behavioral Health Ambulatory Treatment System Listening Session

Creating a Behavioral Health Ambulatory Treatment System Listening Session

May 29, 2019

Dear Colleagues –

May is Mental Health month, and it is therefore appropriate to announce an important initiative to improve access to ambulatory behavioral health!

Since the start of 2015, the Baker-Polito Administration has prioritized the importance of improving access to behavioral health services across the spectrum of treatment for mental illness, addictions and co-occurring illnesses. In addition to significant policy changes, between FY16 and FY22, more than $1.9 billion will have been invested to improve availability of and access to behavioral health treatment and supports.

While we are making important strides in the implementation of parity laws, integration of behavioral and physical health and expansion of treatment capacity, deep-rooted structural challenges still remain. Many of you have already heard me state: there is no ambulatory behavioral health treatment system, no continuum of care for children, youth or adults. Ambulatory behavioral health treatment is fragmented and often insufficient to meet the specific treatment needs of patients and their families. We can and must do better for individuals and family members with addictions, mental illness and co-occurring illnesses.

The Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) is initiating an intensive effort to redesign the front door of behavioral health. Together, we will imagine a system that presents a no-wrong-door point of entry. A system with same-day access, that defines community-based emergency and urgent care responses and untangles the maze that has been created in the absence of a coherent system. This system must meet the unique needs of the Commonwealth’s population across all ages and must be culturally and linguistically appropriate. And, of course, treatment must be evidence-based and be appropriately credentialed.

Although the initiative is led by the EOHHS, it encompasses all of the state agencies within the Secretariat, and we will work in collaboration with sister Secretariats as well. Once a roadmap has been outlined, it is my expectation that agencies will align regulations, policies and practices to ensure that a coherent ambulatory behavioral health treatment system is created.

This work will build off of efforts that have been undertaken by others, including the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, the Children’s Mental Health Campaign and RIZE, to name a few. Beginning on June 5th at 4pm on the 21st floor of One Ashburton Place in Boston, a series of listening sessions will be held across the Commonwealth. These sessions will be facilitated by Dr. Nancy Lane, an independent consultant on behavioral and population health systems, and who is known to many in the Commonwealth. Dr. Lane served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership (MBHP) and as President of the Massachusetts Market for ValueOptions. From 2015-2017, she was Senior Vice President for Population Health Management at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Lane is on the Board of Directors of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law and the Committee on Performance Measurement of the National Committee for Quality Assurance. She is also a Visiting Research Scholar at Brandeis University, Heller School Institute for Behavioral Health.

For more information about this initiative, the dates of listening sessions and a mailbox for feedback to be submitted, please visit www.mass.gov/creating-a-behavioral-health-ambulatory-treatment-system. This process will be collaborative and transparent, and I look forward to your participation. Our health depends on it.

Thank you.

Sincerely, 

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