Things you can do:

Contact your legislators and ask them to support these critical pieces of legislation noted below (find your legislators here).

Call or email members of the Appropriations Committee and tell them you support funding these bills in the supplemental budget.

LD 1937

An Act To Provide Timely Access to Behavioral Health Services for Maine Children and To Address Trauma and the Impacts of the Opioid Crisis: This bill invests in greater access to Children’s Home and Community Based Treatment and Adolescent Residential Services. Historically stagnant rates of reimbursement have led directly to reduced access to these services for Maine children, especially in our rural communities. The tens of millions of dollars spent to send Maine youth out of state for treatment or hold them at Long Creek would be better spent providing these services in our communities and before youth end up in crisis.

LD 593

Resolve, To Stabilize the Behavioral Health Workforce and Avert More Expensive Treatments: Invests in Section 65, Behavioral Health Services for workforce development and to expand capacity for treatment. We have growing wait lists for many essential behavioral health services.

LD 1135

Resolve, To Increase Funding for Evidence-based Assertive Community Treatment: Invest in greater access to Assertive Community Treatment. This treatment helps stabilize people struggling with mental illness and decreases the need for costly emergency department visits or the potential for incarceration in the state’s corrections system.

LD 803

An Act To Fund Mental Health Crisis Intervention Services: Appropriates ongoing funding in the amount of $4,401,303 each year to the Department of Health and Human Services in order to contract for  additional mental health crisis intervention services that provide an evidence-based alternative to criminal justice

Top talking point:

We are at risk of losing key assets of our behavioral health system!
Immediate passage of these bills off the Special Appropriations table is critically needed!

Simple points to make:

OUR MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM IS AT RISK!

• Our workforce is underpaid and overworked, and turnover and vacancy rates are high
• Wait lists are growing
• Adults and children are stuck in emergency departments
• Youth are stuck in Longcreek
• Adults are stuck in our jails
• Lawsuits are brewing across the state
• There are long term community impacts

Investment is needed now!