Connecticut Legislative News
Information on Mental Illness, Mental Health Costs and Caregiver Issues
NAMI-CT & KTP, CT Legislative Hearing Info for Feb 11th-Feb 18th:
Tuesday, February 11, 2014, The Appropriations Committee - Conservation & Development Committee in Room 2C at 6 p.m. Public testimony will be heard on the Department of Housing (DOH) BUDGET - H.B. No. 5030 - AN ACT MAKING ADJUSTMENTS TO STATE EXPENDITURES FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2015. This is a good time to submit testimony THANKING the Committees and the Governor for including funding in the budget for DMHAS RAP vouchers.
Friday, February 14, 2014, The Appropriations Committee - Human Services Subcommittee in Room 2C at 4 p.m. Public testimony will be heard on the Department of Social Services (DSS) and the Department of Children and Families (DCF) BUDGET - H.B. No. 5030 - AN ACT MAKING ADJUSTMENTS TO STATE EXPENDITURES FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2015.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014, The Appropriations Committee - Health and Hospitals Subcommittee in Room 2C at 4 p.m. Public testimony will be heard on the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) and The Department of Public Health (DPH) BUDGET - H.B. No. 5030 AN ACT MAKING ADJUSTMENTS TO STATE EXPENDITURES FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2015
Public speaker order for the public hearings will be determined by a lottery system. Lottery numbers will be drawn from 9:00 a.m. until 10:00 a.m. in the First Floor Atrium of the Legislative Office Building (LOB) and from 10:15 a.mM. until 1:00 p.m. in Room 2700 of the LOB. The list of speakers registered through the lottery system will be posted outside the designated hearing room two hours prior to the start of the public hearing. Speakers arriving after the completion of the lottery will have their names placed at the end of the speaker list.
Connecticut's BiPartisan Task Force created after Newtown has submiitted their recommendations
Please click here to see them.
Overall I feel they came to a consensus on the most of the essential items. A few were left out due to funding issues and we'll need to revisit them as they're essential to the proper implimentation of many of the items the Task Force is recommending and will be voted on.
BIPARTISAN TASK FORCE ON GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION AND CHILDREN'S SAFETY SCHEDULES HEARINGS
A special bipartisan task force recently announced by legislative leaders and charged with developing recommendations designed to reduce gun violence, enhance school safety and increase access to mental health care has scheduled a series of public hearings. For further information: http://www.cga.ct.gov/asaferconnecticut
"Managed care has not caused a shift in the pattern of care but an overall reduction of care." *
* 1999 Psychiatry Online, American Journal of Psychiatry: Full article found here: http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleid=173643
This certainly has proved true over the last 14 years. The reduction in care by insurance companies and the availability of cost effective private services has dwindled to an unacceptable low. The financial burden is passed along to caregiving family members who have little or no say over their loved ones care. Most care in the Northeast is private pay; Therapy, DBT, CBT, etc...
I urge you to read the World Health Organizations report on the burdens and costs of Mental Health Issues that was published in 2001: http://who.int/whr/2001/chapter2/en/index3.html
Studies show that providing proper insured care for our mentally ill loved ones lowers health care costs for all. It doesn't raise them. It also lowers the costs to society by not placing the burden of continued crisis hospitalization costs on the very hospitals that care for our uninsured loved ones. Effective Social Services are in place but funding has been drastically cut.
On December 8, 1990 the State of Connecticut closed two facilities with the promise that the money would go to local level mental health support services and to the New Department of Behavioral Health. In fact, even during the economic boom of the 1990's these services continued to see cuts. As insurance companies profits rose, Mental Health Services were cut. Since the recession we've seen more and more of our loved ones in shelters, on the streets, unemployed and left without insurance and services. This is unacceptable.
Remember 1:4 Americans are diagnosed each year with a Mental Illness and 1:4 Americans are caregivers of someone with a Mental Illness.
We need to be at the table. Our voices need to be heard.
CT OHA Report & Recommendations Press Release.
To read their full report click the sunflower on their main webpage or the Word Doc. link at the end of this press release from their office. It's worth the read.
New ReleasesOHA Releases Report on Recommendations to Reform Mental Health and Substance Use Service Delivery in Connecticut
For Immediate Release Contact: 860-331-2441 or
January 2, 2013 860-214-9675
Office of the Healthcare Advocate Releases Report on Mental Health and Substance Use: Access to Prevention, Treatment and Coverage
Victoria Veltri, State Healthcare Advocate, released today the Office of the Healthcare Advocate’s (OHA’s) report, “Findings and Recommendations on Access to Mental Health and Substance Use Services.” The report draws from testimony provided at OHA’s public hearing on October 17, 2012, on barriers to access to and coverage for preventive and treatment services for mental health and substance use.
The report makes eight substantive recommendations based on testimony and research conducted since the hearing. “Now, more than ever, action is required to address the obstacles to access to treatment for and prevention of mental health and substance use conditions. Connecticut lacks an overall vision of delivery services to all of our residents,” said Veltri.
The testimony offered at the hearing and the research conducted by OHA show that the state has a fractured and fragmented method of delivering care that needs to be coordinated and more data driven in terms of cost effectiveness. “Access to prevention and treatment depend on whether one is covered by a public or private plan. Access should not depend on one’s income, employment status, geographic area or any other status, but that is exactly how our current delivery system works. “
Veltri emphasized that there are evidenced based practices used in multiple state agencies, but those practices are not widely utilized beyond the populations that those agencies serve because of restrictions on eligibility and issues with capacity of our current delivery system.
“I hope this report is an immediate call to action on all our parts. All stakeholders need to be at the table to create the kind of healthcare delivery that creates awareness, offers prompt, affordable and quality treatment, addresses health disparities, breeds excellent outcomes and is cost effective,” Veltri said.
OHA’s eight recommendations:
1. Connecticut should adopt an overall vision for health that integrates and coordinates access to effective, timely, high quality and affordable mental health and substance use prevention and treatment services into overall healthcare
2. Connecticut’s mental health and substance use delivery system should be synchronized by an coordinating entity
3. Prevention, awareness and screening programs must be enhanced
4. Residents covered by self-funded and fully-insured plans should have access to community-based services
5. Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity must be enforced
6. The recommendations of the 12/18/12 Program Review and Investigation Committee report should be adopted in full
7. State programs must be evaluated for cost effectiveness, and should be streamlined
8. Cost shifting to the state should be evaluated and minimized.
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About OHA: OHA provides free, real-time advocacy services for Connecticut healthcare consumers. OHA staff does not quit on any case until every source of coverage is exhausted, and every possible remedy is explored. For assistance, consumers can call 1-866-466-4446, or e-mail OHA at healthcare.advocate@ct.gov. For general information, visit OHA’s website at www.ct.gov/oha .
Word Version - click here
Yale Daily News ( Full article)
Post-Newtown, mental health services considered
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, February 8, 2013
In the days following the shooting in Newtown that left 20 children and six staff members dead, speculation was rife over the 20-year-old gunman Adam Lanza’s mental health. Multiple news outlets reported that Lanza had been taking medication prior to the shooting and that his mother had been mulling over more intensive treatment for her son. Throughout the state, lawmakers and Connecticut citizens have been asking the same question: Had the state’s mental health system been stronger, could the events at Newtown have been prevented?
In the wake of the shooting, the Connecticut Legislature established the Bipartisan Task Force on Gun Violence Protection and Children’s Safety on Jan. 14, charged with the mission of patching up cracks in any laws through which Lanza may have slipped. The task force is divided into three caucuses: school security, gun safety and mental health, which will each propose a bill this legislative session. Though bills normally take the entirety of the five-month legislative session to discuss, pass through committee and come up for a vote, the task force is due to release its proposals by the end of this month.
Several mental health experts interviewed said that although they were glad to see an unusual spotlight shone on issues of mental health, they worried that producing legislation in reaction to a tragedy might produce regulations that were not well-thought-out.
Kate Mattias, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Connecticut Chapter, said that Lanza’s high profile leads the public to wrongly conclude that individuals with mental illnesses have a propensity toward violence. To the contrary, according to the National Institute for Mental Health, individuals with severe mental illness are no more violent than the average population when their symptoms are controlled.
“There is no connection between what went on in Newtown and people with mental illness. We do not have any sort of diagnosis for the young man,” Mattias said. “What we do know is that the mentally ill are much more likely to be victims than to be perpetrators of crime.”
MENTAL HEALTH SOLUTIONS
In order to keep the symptoms of mental illness under control, mental health experts agree that a comprehensive mental health care system must be in place. By many accounts, Connecticut’s system is one of the most progressive in the country. According to Mary Kate Mason, the spokeswoman for the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, or DMHAS, the state employs a “recovery model” of treatment. Rather than putting the mentally ill in institutions, she said, the department seeks to integrate them into communities and teach them independent living skills.
“They have lives that are very similar to folks who don’t have mental illness,” she said. “They go to school, they work, they live full, productive lives.”
Christine Limone, director of political advocacy for the Connecticut chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, said that once patients emerge from hospitals, the recovery model relies on three prongs of treatment. The first is adequate clinical care, including medication and regular therapy. The second is a system of supported housing complexes, where individuals live in their own apartments, but staff work in the building to assist dwellers in taking their medication and other daily tasks. The third is known as psychosocial treatment — programs that assist patients to reintegrate into their communities, for example helping patients find work or go back to school.
Limone said that the state faces a chronic shortage of supportive housing, leaving many patients with inadequate care once they leave the hospital. But, she added, the state tends to underestimate the need for psychosocial services funding, as well.
“Psychosocial rehabilitation is the most likely to be underfunded,” she said. “People understand that at base minimum you need meds and you need a doctor. But people underestimate the power of just having people there with you.”
DEBATING INVOLUNTARY COMMITMENT
Perhaps one of the most hotly contested issues surrounding the state’s mental health care system revolves around whether the state should institute an involuntary commitment law. Currently, Connecticut is one of six states across the country that lacks such a law, which would allow family members or service providers of a person with severe mental illness to force them to seek treatment. In Connecticut, a person can only face involuntary commitment if he or she is found unfit to stand for trial in court proceedings.
“People that are mentally ill don’t think like the rest of us,” said Howard Zonana, the director of the Psychiatry and Law Division at Yale Medical School. “So you can’t just rely on someone to say, ‘Oh yes, I’m mentally ill, and I need treatment.’”
Zonana said such a law would be more likely to pass after a tragedy such as Newtown, when the impetus to act is so strong. But he added that though involuntary commitment laws in other states have reduced arrests of those facing mental health challenges, they have not necessarily prevented all acts of extreme violence from these individuals.
Opponents of the law say that if Connecticut’s recovery model-based mental health care system was funded adequately enough to provide every person with adequate services, they would not reach a point where involuntary commitment would be necessary. According to William Sledge, a professor of psychiatry at Yale and the director of psychiatric services at Yale-New Haven Hospital, the potential of facing involuntary commitment might be enough to scare many in need away from the system.
“I’ve seen so many patients who — something like this has such a chilling impact on their ability to take advantage of the resources, it would have more disadvantages in turning people away from treatment,” he said.
State Rep. Terrie Wood, a Republican from Norwalk and a co-chair of the task force’s mental health caucus, said that some form of an involuntary commitment mandate would “most likely” not appear in the bill her committee will put forward this month. Such a proposal, she explained, is too complex to decide in a few short weeks.
“Some of the deeper issues should go through the regular legislative process, just because they need to be much more thoroughly vetted,” she said.
A QUESTION OF FUNDING
In December, Gov. Dannel Malloy included $7.7 million in cuts to DMHAS as a part of his deficit mitigation package to close the state’s shortfall this fiscal year. After the events at Newtown, though, most of these cuts have since been reversed, with Malloy including several line-item increases for DMHAS in his proposed biennial budget for the two fiscal years starting on July 1. According to Mason, proposed increases include funding for 100 new units of supportive housing and increases in funding for young adult services.
Despite its weaknesses, the state’s mental health care system is one of the nation’s strongest, according to Sledge. Sledge said that, though Connecticut lawmakers are conscious of its cost, they are largely cognizant of the importance of a robust mental health care system.
“Politicians in Connecticut are fairly sophisticated about mental health services,” he said. “It doesn’t mean it’s their favorite thing. But as far as legislators go, I would take them over any other state that I know of.”
Sledge added that, if there were any changes he could propose to the system, he would allocate more funding to clinical research on mental illness. He said that, though Malloy maintained the large majority of DMHAS funding in his proposed budget, he cut funding for education and research.
“If there’s anything Connecticut could pass, it would be an investment in the future,” he said. “Making sure there are adequate health care providers through education and training, and there is adequate investigation into the causes and treatment of mental illness.”
With such a strong track record, it is unclear which areas of the system the legislative task force can fix through rushed legislation. Wood suggested that any items included in the bill later this month would be fairly noncontroversial. She declined to discuss specific proposals, though she suggested that the caucus would delve into issues such as more widespread mental health training and linking services between DMHAS and the Department of Children and Families.
During this fiscal year, the appropriation for DMHAS totaled $693 million
http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2013/02/08/post-newtown-mental-health-services-considered/
Senate Testimony by Michael F. Hogan, Ph.D. 1.24.13
I urge you to read the testimony sighted below by Michael F. Hogan, Ph.D given to the Senate 1.24.13
He touches on the history, costs and forced poverty of those who suffer from mental illness. He eloquently states the need to change the system so those who want to work and be productive members of society can.
http://www.help.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Hogan.pdf
Historic Autism Legislation by our CT Legislative Assembly, SB 1029
Thank you Tony! This just in from his office: HARTFORD – Rep. Tony Hwang (R-134) championed historic autism legislation through the Connecticut General Assembly session into law. Senate Bill 1029, an Act Concerning Health Insurance Coverage for Autism Spectrum Disorders received strong bipartisan support and is the first of its kind legislation in the country. The legislation ensures that there are no gaps in coverage for those with autism regardless of what changes happen to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual or to the Affordable Care Act as a result of the landmark insurance statute passed by CT General Assembly in 2008.
“This legislation is a great example of the fantastic work that can be done when advocates come together for their communities and those impacted by autism in a bipartisan manner. This bill is about helping and supporting people whose lives are affected by autism.” said Rep. Hwang. “It is my sincere hope that this 1st of its kind legislation will lead the way for other legislatures across the country. I want to thank my colleagues from both sides of the aisle for coming together to make this dream to so many parents, a reality.”
“I’m so thankful for Rep. Hwang’s passionate advocacy on behalf of his community and to people affected by autism,” said Autism Speaks' Community Advocate Shannon Knall. “He has worked hard to develop proactive autism oriented legislation. Autism belongs to no political party and it is imperative that legislators on both sides of the aisle listen, support and act on behalf of our families – and Rep. Hwang has shown through this legislation and his passionate advocacy and leadership that it can be done.”
The bipartisan legislation had passed the Senate by consent and passed the House by a unanimous vote of the body and now heads to Governor Malloy for his signature to take effect.