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She praised the federal government’s effort to reform mental health services.

The legislation will push a lot more service availability to the front end of the continuum, Myers said. Rule change should allow California’s Medicaid program, MediCal, to be reimbursed for treatment in facilities like Santa Rosa’s privately run Aurora Santa Rosa Hospital, that is not affiliated with any local general hospital.

Zane, who says the lack of ‘oneonone’ therapy and poor monitoring of psychotropic medications led to the death by suicide of her husband in 2011, argues that mental illness will be treated with really similar amount of care as health conditions like heart disease or cancer. Local government and mental health officials are hopeful the legislation marks a turning point.

Kennedy applauded the federal government’s effort to put greater focus on mental health care, particularly the creation of a ‘subCabinetlevel’ mental health czar.

a series of public forums and investigative hearings leading up to the drafting of Murphy’s bill highlighted serious gaps across the entire spectrum of mental health care. In line with a House subcommittee investigation into federal mental health programs. 40 percent are not receiving any treatment.

Michael Kennedy, Sonoma County’s director of mental health, said the rule change only applies to mental health programs reimbursed by federal Medicaid Managed Care coverage. Some are calling it the most ambitious piece of mental health legislation since President John Kennedy’s landmark law aimed at shutting down the nation’s notorious insane asylums in favor of more humane community based services a goal that in two generations was never quite realized.

The legislation has raised concerns among some civil liberties organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, that objects to such policies as involuntary outpatient commitment and any reduction in patient privacy protections.

Health care providers are make good income on cardiac and cancer treatment but not on mental illness … mental health care is a civil rights issue, she said.

Strengthen community cr response and fund grants for the creation of community psychiatric bed databases. One the legislation provision seeks to get at the nationwide lack of acute inpatient psychiatric hospital beds. Bill codifies into federal law a recent policy rule change to what’s known as the IMD exclusion, that prevents Medicaid dollars from being used for adult patients treated at certain kinds of mental health and substanceabuse treatment facilities with more than 16 beds.

Authorize funding for assisted outpatient treatment ‘courtordered’ treatment for people with severe mental illness who do not recognize their condition.

As well as patients and families, require the federal Health and Human Services Department to create training programs to educate health care providers and administrators on the proper use of medical privacy rules.

While conforming to its supporters, the new legislation quietly making its way through Congress would take steps toward bringing most of the nation’s mental health laws in line with current science and medical knowledge. The key elements in the legislation is its creation of a ‘high ranking’ assistant secretary post that will oversee federal policies addressing mental health and ‘substanceuse’ disorders.