Behavioral Health in the 21st Century: Fast Forward after the Pandemic

1 Session each Thursday from September 30^th – November 4^th at 2PM-4:30PM EST

Session 1 (September 30): Building on Past Successes and Lessons from the Pandemic

• This session will provide an overview of behavioral health system trajectories prior to the pandemic and how these will be melded with recent lessons learned to chart the future direction of behavioral health systems. Prior to the pandemic, several innovations were occurring in behavioral health – crisis services, integration with physical health, telehealth, peer and recovery services, and school-based services. During the pandemic, behavioral health providers learned to adapt with urgency and success. As one observer put it, “Systems did in a few months what otherwise would have taken decades.” This session will cover how these different strands will come together to define future models and programs.

Session 2 (October 7): New Models of Crisis Services (incorporating the National 988 Helpline)

• Federal legislation related to the implementation of the national 988 helpline for mental health crises represents a cultural shift that has huge ramifications for behavioral health systems across the country. Each state is required to develop a 988 help-line implementation process with a target start date of July 2022. Local systems will need modifications and adjustments will have to be made to current programs and processes. This session will review 988 implementation efforts in behavioral health crisis systems from national, state and local perspectives. Issues related to implementation in rural/frontier areas will be specifically addressed.

Session 3 (October 14): Special Populations: Persons with Serious Mental Illness and Persons with Substance Use Disorders

• How were the special needs of persons with SMI and persons with SUD addressed during the pandemic? What was done to ensure that EBPs – so critical for outcomes – were maintained and delivered? What worked, and what did not? And how will these lessons impact the future delivery of needed services to these special populations? On the SUD side, the increase is substance use and the opioid crisis have created a new set of demands. How were these managed during the pandemic, in both urban and rural areas? This session will cover these topics, again with the perspective of developing concrete recommendations and action steps.

Session 4 (October 21): Disparities: Children/Adolescents; Race/Ethnicity, Gender

• What is being done to address the growing needs of children and adolescents when they are disconnected from their schools and peers? How do we ensure that the growing child suicide rates and dislocations are addressed? And while disparities in race/ethnicity are ground in the issues of social determinants, there are specific programmatic interventions that can occur with behavioral health systems themselves. SAMHSA has set up training centers that focus on the Latino, Native American and African American populations. New models from implementation science are being applied.

Session 5 (October 28): Physical/Behavioral Health Integration: FQHCs; CCBHs

• Over the last year, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) have received substantial new funding for behavioral health services. They are therefore poised to be major centers for integrated care for persons with behavioral health issues. At the same time, there are major advances in developing Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) that provide integrated care, especially for those with more serious, chronic behavioral health conditions. What are plans for their expansion across states, and how will this affect current lives and programs, especially in terms of a recovery orientation and peer support services? This session will cover these questions and issues.

Session 6 (November 4): Behavioral Health System Issues: Funding, Advocacy, and Education

• All the innovative initiatives and programs discussed in the previous sessions are dependent on system design and the availability of resources. This session will cover these system-level issues so cutting-edge programs can be disseminated and go to scale. Funding is critical and demonstrating outcomes through mechanisms such as value-based contracting are likely to become the norm. At the same time, there is still considerable misunderstanding and misperception of mental illness and substance misuse. Both these gaps require a renewed advocacy effort at national, state and local levels. This session will address these issues by reviewing current initiatives in these areas and will develop proposed solutions for implementation at different levels.

• Register Here.