News and Events
Healing Minds NOLA
July 2020
Below is a summary of recent events we’ve hosted, news stories and new developments that highlight America’s broken mental health treatment system, and ways we can help fix it.
4th Anniversary Celebration: Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act
On July 6th we organized a virtual event in honor of the 4th Anniversary Celebration of the passage of the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act. On that day 4 years ago, in a stunning victory, the House of Representatives voted 422-2 in favor of the bill that, upon its introduction in 2013, was said to have a 2% chance of passing.
We were honored to host family members, advocates and consumers who came together with VIPs to mark the historical occasion. A recording of the celebration can be found here.
Amongst the honored guests were the bill’s cosponsors. All expressed gratitude to Tim Murphy, PhD – Congressman R-PA (Ret) for his unwavering and steadfast efforts to make untreated and under-treated serious mental illness a congressional priority and Representative Eddie Bernice-Johnson (D-TX) for her valued expertise as psychiatric nurse and for co-authoring the bill to make it truly bipartisan.
Also joining us for the hour was Shannon Royce, Esq. – Director of The Center For Faith and Opportunity Initiatives (Partnership Center) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Federal Government has issued a guidebook for leaders of all faiths to increase awareness about mental illness.
Here is a link to their one-pager on the Seven Principles of Compassion in Action
For more information:
- Email: partnerships@hhs.gov
- phone: 202-260-6501
- Twitter: @PartnersForGood
- Facebook: @HHSPartnershipCenter
- Web: HHS.Gov/Partnerships
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/HHSPartnershipCenter (Watch their webinars on mental illness, substance use disorder, trauma-informed care, etc.)
The bill went on to pass the Senate and provisions were included in the 21st Century Cures Act – signed by President Obama on Dec. 13, 2016 – but while we needed everything we got, we didn’t get everything that we needed. There’s more work to do. As much as the evening was a celebration of past victories, it was also a call to action that inspired participants and viewers to continue the fight!
Zoom Cast Series 2020: Focus on Serious Mental Illness Launches !
The kick off to our 2020 Zoom Cast Series addressing core topics pertaining to untreated and undertreated Serious Mental Illness was a resounding success! Janet Hays, Director – Healing Minds NOLA and Eric Smith, Mental Health Advocate & Graduate student, teamed up this year to work on putting together a FREE SERIES of 9 zoom casts to bring light to the darkness of needed programs, services and policies to address alternatives to incarceration, homelessness and death for people living with untreated and undertreated serious mental illnesses. Check out our full line up!
Both Eric and Janet maintain that what is needed in lieu of incarceration, homelessness and death, is a full streamlined continuum of coordinated psychiatric treatment and care.
Our inaugural episode featured Judge Oscar Kazen, Assisted Outpatient Treatment (TX), and Dr. Xavier Amador, the LEAP Foundation and author of I Am Not Sick, I Don’t Need Help, for an insightful discussion on “Anosognosia & Treatment Non-Adherence”.
If you missed the opportunity to hear from our 2 guests who have vast institutional knowledge and expertise about treatment non-adherence, you can rewatch the program on our video archives page!
Next up features Margie Balfour M.D., Ph.D. and Jeffrey Geller M.D., M.P.H. who will be discussing “Mental Health vs Mental Illness”. Register here!
“Making Sense of HIPAA” August 28th with Senator Bill Cassidy
On August 28th @ 1pm CT/ 2pm ET, Senator Cassidy will be partnering with Healing Minds NOLA to present a virtual seminar on “Making Sense of HIPAA”.
Background: On December 13, 2016, President Obama signed into law HR 34, the 21st Century Cures Act. The bill included the following provisions on clarifying the circumstances under which healthcare providers and families can share and provide protected information about a loved one with SMI.
- Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to issue guidance clarifying the circumstances under which healthcare providers and families can share and provide protected information about a loved one with SMI.
- Requires the Secretary to develop model programs and trainings for health care providers to clarify when information can be shared and trainings for patients and their families to understand their rights to protect and obtain treatment information. **https://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/fixing-the-system/21st-century-cures-act
HIPAA however, continues to present significant barriers for providers and family caregivers who are unable to help people maintain continuity of care when paralysed by psychosis and/or cognitive impairments. Join us for this important interactive seminar. We encourage robust audience participation! There will be plenty of time for Q&A.
Healing Minds NOLA in the News!
We commend Nick Chrastil – writing for The Lens NOLA – on this important article that highlights work going on in the community by citizen experts to explore and plan viable alternatives to incarceration for people living with untreated and undertreated serious mental illnesses. We appreciate the opportunity to inform New Orleanians about our work at Healing Minds NOLA!
“We need a whole strategic plan,” said Janet Hays, of Healing Minds NOLA, in an interview. “It has to be a whole plan. It can’t be piecemeal planning— which is what we’re trying to do now.”
Hays is a proponent of loosening civil-commitment laws, and increasing funding for Assisted Outpatient Treatment programs, which are civil-court-ordered and involve a team of specialists to monitor a person’s treatment plan and mandate their participation.
“It’s not just about a diversion center, and it’s not just about a hospital facility, or competency services, and it’s not just about residential treatment beds,” Hays said. “Everything has to connect.”
She said the goal is to provide “a full, streamlined, continuum of coordinated psychiatric treatment and care for people with untreated and under-treated serious mental illness.”
In a project outline exploring mental health care solutions for the city developed by Hays and Pres Kabacoff, a local developer who has been involved in criminal justice reform efforts, they emphasized the need for any solutions to be centered outside of the jail, and the criminal justice system as a whole.
“The New Orleans jail must be brought into compliance, but we must be cautious that in doing so, we are not forever institutionalizing the criminalization of serious mental illness,” the proposal read. “Reforming our mental ‘health’ system in a way that delivers treatment and care to people who struggle with serious mental “illness”, requires a unified effort.”
“Any new facility must be administered by mental health professionals, not the Sheriff, nor the criminal justice system that was never designed to care for this population.”
Hays also said she plans to propose to the city a task force in the Mayor’s office that would be focused on serious mental illness. The task force would collect data on how those with serious mental illness move through both the health care and criminal justice systems, and provide evidence-based guidance to the city.
For advocates who have been pushing for an alternative to Phase III and a more comprehensive approach to mental health care outside of the criminal justice system, the recent shift by the city has given them a chance to influence the course of events with regards to the jail.
“It really kind of presented us with an opening and an opportunity to get behind the mayor in a way that we hadn’t been able to before,” said Will Snowden of Vera. “Because previously I believe the mayor was opposed to Phase III — she didn’t believe Phase III was the solution to providing care for people with serious mental illness — but kind of felt that her hands were tied.”
But some advocates see Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman — who may soon take over day-to-day operations at the jail from current appointed compliance director Darnely Hodge — as an obstacle in achieving an alternative to Phase III. Gusman has long stressed the necessity of the new facility in order to accommodate inmates with serious mental illness.
“I would love to see the sheriff be a stronger advocate for alternatives to incarceration for people with untreated and under-treated serious mental illnesses,” Hays said in an email.
She also noted that if Gusman was unwilling to be a partner in creating alternatives to incarceration for those with mental illness, she would be “happy to run against him” in the next election — which would take place in 2022.”
White Paper Released – Beyond Housing First – Housing That Heals
Readers might remember the impassioned keynote speech that Teresa Pasquini (Advocate Mom) gave at our 2019 October Conference in strong support of residential treatment facilities (Institutions for Mental Diseases – IMDs). Click on the image below to watch.
At the time, Teresa and Lauren Rettagliata, another powerful advocate Mom, were on a mission to publish a report based on their own research analysis of housing options for people with serious mental illness. However, this was not just any ordinary research project. Teresa and Lauren’s journey began where the rubber meets the road – literally.
They drove miles to visit facilities in person and to have meaningful conversations with care providers and patients.
Family members like Teresa and Lauren know unequivocally what kinds of services are needed to help get loved ones suffering with untreated and undertreated serious mental illness the help and care they need. Sadly, such services are few and far between.
Their white paper was highlighted recently in the Treatment Advocacy Center’s Research Weekly and is quickly garnering well-deserved attention.
These Moms on a mission know that permanent supportive housing, and other oft-promoted modalities of housing options for people like Teresa’s son Danny, have failed because they have experienced the tragic consequences of those failures. They promote the idea that “Housing That Heals must first include treatment and stability supports appropriate to the resident’s current needs but also consider future potential needs; that those with SMI who are at risk of homelessness, stuck in a county jail, in an unlicensed or unregulated board and care or an out of county placement can no longer be excluded because of a negative clinical history that prevents access to some programs.
Law Enforcement or No Law Enforcement? Responding To A Crisis: A Sensible Approach
We have been closely following the hot debate going on in America about how to address tragedies involving police brutality and the relationship between law enforcement and people living with serious mental illness.
Clearly there are much needed changes, however there are no easy answers when it comes to what policy implementations we should support as a means to the end. As with any good planning, we must resist the temptation to jump the gun – (no pun intended) – before all voices have been heard. Planning must take place in context with a 360 degree holistic view of why people living with serious mental illnesses become criminalized in the first place. In case you missed it, John Snook, Executive Director of the Treatment Advocacy Center (our national parter) gave a fantastic presentation at our October conference last year that is a great primer for this discussion.
Last week, the Treatment Advocacy Center, released a short statement on “Law Enforcement and Severe Mental Illness” that makes a whole lot of sense. In it, the following recommendations are given: “to reduce encounters between law enforcement and those experiencing a mental health crisis and the use of force that all too frequently follows”
- Fund a full continuum of treatment options, including inpatient psychiatric beds – Communities must create a system that provides care before someone is in crisis. That means restoring desperately needed beds for inpatient treatment and making them available without requiring someone to first be violent or suicidal.
- Embrace non-law enforcement responses to mental health crises – Both law enforcement and mental health experts agree that mental health crises are not a law enforcement matter. Law enforcement can play a supporting role in situations where there is a safety or criminal concern, but communities should provide a medical response to mental health crises whenever possible.
- Prioritize data collection – Without data, communities cannot make informed policy decisions. Congress must expand the provisions first passed in the 21st Century Cures Act to establish a transparent federal database of all incidents involving the use of deadly force by law enforcement.
Establishing a transparent federal database of all incidents involving the use of deadly force by law enforcement is critical, but should also include incidents of deadly force on law enforcement by people with untreated serious mental illness.
That said, cities and states do not need to wait for federal data. That data is something that local and state Serious Mental Illness Coordinating Task Forces – comprised of members with expertise in mental diseases – can ask for today.
Tunnel vision planning never works. Planning must begin in the community with the guidance of citizen and professional experts. Anything less is a recipe for failure.
Stay in touch. There’s more to come!
Janet