Legislating for new mental health facilities may not sit well with everyone. We should be far more uncomfortable with the alternative: leaving vulnerable young Mainers hanging in the balance. No measures should be off limits when it comes to the restoration and repair of Maine’s failing mental health services – and that includes creative legislative proposals like the one sponsored by state Sen. Russell Black. In response to the crisis of young patients languishing in hospital rooms ... Read More ›
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15 states receive grants to plan Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration yesterday awarded 15 states $1 million grants to plan and apply to participate in Medicaid’s Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic demonstration. Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont and West Virginia received the grants, authorized by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022 to expand the eight-state Medicaid ... Read More ›
Schools across the country say more students are asking for mental health services
Schools across the country say more students are asking for mental health services By Abē Levine Published March 15, 2023 at 5:11 AM EDT LISTEN • 2:12 Full Report Here ... Read More ›
With the pandemic waning, it’s time to deal with drug and alcohol deaths, panel finds
By Susan Cover Maine PUBLISHED 2:11 PM ET Nov. 30, 2022 Gordon Smith’s office gets calls every day from people struggling to find help with substance use disorder. As the state’s director of opioid response, he hears from mothers and fathers who have lost a family member to an overdose. And he hears from those who try to get help, but can’t find it. “An individual was taken to the emergency department and after five hours was literally told we will get to you after ... Read More ›
With the worst of the pandemic hopefully behind us, now is the time to finally develop a statewide strategic plan to rebuild our behavioral health system and ensure that our most vulnerable residents have access to community support and the services necessary to live safe and productive lives. Our system is simply too fragile to endure another crisis. We can and must do better.
Credit: George Danby / BDN The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set newsroom policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com. Malory Shaughnessy is the executive director of the Alliance for Addiction and Mental Health Services. Betsy Sweet is senior advocate with the Behavioral Health Community Collaborative. Katie Fullam Harris is the chief government affairs officer of MaineHealth. At the end of June, ... Read More ›
Maine hospitals, mental health advocates want more funding to address gaps
Author: Don Carrigan Published: 9:30 PM EST March 2, 2022 "Hospital leaders, including Scott Oxley, president of Acadia Hospital in Bangor, said the major problem causing extended patient stays in emergency rooms is a lack of community and residential mental health services. They said the chronic underfunding of those programs, coupled with a worsening shortage of mental health workers, have made treatment hard to find." #SaveMentalHealthinMaine #FundMentalHealthforMaine ... Read More ›
Maine Med president: Lack of state mental health investment is major factor in ER violence
Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer BY JEFF SANDERS, SPECIAL TO THE PRESS HERALD "...We all agree that individuals with mental illness and developmental disabilities should be in the least restrictive settings in which they can safely and successfully live. But when group homes and residential treatment facilities do not have adequate clinical resources to manage a patient’s behavior, they often bring the individual to the ED. When police do not want to criminalize an illness, they have no ... Read More ›
Gov. Mills barely mentioned opioid crisis in State of the State, and people noticed
"...Malory Shaughnessy, director of the Alliance for Addiction and Mental Health Services, Maine, acknowledged the systemic improvements being implemented by the administration. But she said it was “really disconcerting” not to hear the governor talk about about the immediate challenge of keeping people alive. “They’re looking at big picture, big fixes which are longer-term responses, which are great and we totally support those,” Shaughnessy said. “But they’re missing the serious crisis ... Read More ›
Maine’s unmet behavioral health care needs must be top funding priority
en. Marianne Moore, R-Calais, is serving her second term in the Maine Senate and is a member of the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee. Rep. Lori K. Gramlich, D-Old Orchard Beach, is a long-time social worker serving her second term in the Maine House. She co-chairs the Behavioral Health Caucus. During her State of the State address last week, Gov. Janet Mills outlined her priorities for this legislative session. While we have more to learn about her proposed supplemental ... Read More ›
Maine has a budget surplus, but many unmet needs remain
One of the most talked about aspects of Gov. Janet Mills’ State of the State last week was the proposal to return half of the state’s expected budget surplus to Maine taxpayers in the form of $500 checks for most. Some Republicans criticized the governor for usurping the idea. Former Gov. Paul LePage, who is now running against Mills, called the governor’s plan a gimmick. This is odd criticism since Mills gave Republican legislative leaders full credit for the idea, which may be a hard sell ... Read More ›