The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services cut funding for its Division of Behavioral Health by $15 million this year, and more cuts are planned despite sharply increasing demand for mental health and substance abuse treatment programs.
The department now faces $25 million in cuts to fund the property tax relief. Behavioral Health Specialists in Norfolk provides short-term inpatient treatment for substance abuse disorders.
Neil Broders, executive director of the nonprofit, said the COVID pandemic may have contributed to the false belief that unspent funds were not needed.
“The reason why many institutions were unable to use their funding was not because there was no demand,” Broders stressed. “It was because it was difficult to find staff over the last four to five years.”
Some agencies in Nebraska have spent years rebuilding their workforce after COVID. Broders said they have had to compete with national companies that pay more and allow people to work remotely. He noted that employers, especially in smaller communities, have had to raise wages and work harder to recruit and retain staff.
Broders added that their residential program was recently fully staffed for the first time in four years.
“We now have enough staff for 58 beds and are at full capacity,” Broders reported. “We receive over 100 referrals per month for these 58 beds. So we now have enough staff to care for the patients. The patients are here.”
Lincoln-based multi-program CenterPointe saw a similar increase in demand last year.
Topher Hansen, president and CEO of the nonprofit, said their primary care clinic served 500 more people and they provided over 2,000 additional hours of outpatient clinic care, at least in part because they were able to fill some open positions.
“But the more staff we get, the more availability we have and the more people come to us,” Hansen noted.
More than half of the people served by CenterPointe in the last fiscal year reported an annual income of less than $1,000.
Hansen acknowledged that funding mental health and addiction treatment is not always politically popular, but is often a financially sound move. He pointed to the Alternative Response program, which works with Lincoln police and sends a CenterPointe team instead of a uniformed officer for nonviolent welfare checks.
“We have carried out over a thousand such cases in the last year and saved the officers time every time,” Hansen stressed. “We have halved the number of emergency protective custody cases. We have housed a dozen people and decriminalized homelessness.”
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Researchers have introduced a new blood test that can predict Alzheimer’s disease much better than previous tests. A new law in Iowa is intended to ensure that the test is covered by health insurance.
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, the blood test can determine whether people with signs of cognitive impairment have the disease with 90% accuracy.
Lauren Livingston, communications director for the Iowa chapter, said it’s a huge step forward from the memory tests doctors currently use.
“Very good news,” Livingston said. “The accuracy rate of the blood test was 30 to 40 percent higher than that of doctors who only used a memory screen.”
Livingston said patients would need to have a certain amount of “tau” in their brain, a protein that is a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease, to be eligible for the test.
Iowa passed a law this year requiring state health insurers to cover tests for dementia biomarkers such as tau in the blood.
Livingston said positive blood tests could boost recruitment for Alzheimer’s clinical trials and reduce wait times for evaluation.
There is no cure for the disease, but Livingston said early detection means the patient can take medication to slow the progression of the disease.
She said the test could be especially helpful outside of Iowa’s metropolitan areas, where there are larger health centers.
“Especially for rural Iowans who don’t have as much access to specialists and these tests,” Livingston said. “It would be much, much easier for them to get a diagnosis if there was a simple blood test.”
About 62,000 Iowans suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. Nationwide, the number is nearly 7 million. However, the Alzheimer’s Association points out that the disease is underdiagnosed.
Livingston is confident the test will be available in healthcare facilities in the near future.
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Montana is spending $300 million to improve mental health care in the state.
Experts focus on six key areas.
Mental health services in Montana were hit hard during an economic crisis in 2017. Matt Kuntz, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Montana, said the state is trying to recover.
New data released by the so-called 872 Commission recommends the state strengthen services in key areas – including investing in more mental health beds, securing additional funding sources and providing more resources for Montana’s classrooms.
“This is important because it’s a really great place for kids to get care without having their schooling interrupted,” Kuntz said, “and it also gives schools an opportunity to help their students get the care they need.”
The 872 Commission will present its recommendations to the state parliament at its meeting in January.
Kuntz said some of the commission’s recommendations would require ongoing funding.
He said the state is already working to restore necessary mental health services that suffered dramatically during the 2017 budget crisis.
“And there have been really severe impacts in ways that we haven’t quite overcome yet,” Kuntz said, “and those have only been exacerbated during COVID.”
The 872 Commission also recommends funding forensic mental health evaluations and expanding group homes. Its report and recommendations are open for public comment.
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July is National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, a time to raise awareness of the challenges faced by ethnic and racial minorities in the mental health care field.
According to the US Food and Drug Administration, obstacles include a lack of health insurance coverage and poor access to treatment.
Lisa Pion-Berlin, president and CEO of Parents Anonymous, which runs both the California and national helplines for parents and teens, said society must fight to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental illness.
“We don’t talk about these things in our families that are perhaps related to our cultural values,” noted Pion-Berlin. “The history of oppression where people say, ‘If I raise a problem, I’ll be seen as weak and incapable.'”
She said 80% of callers to the California helpline are people of color. The free helpline at 855-427-2736 can be reached by people calling or texting, who will be connected to a trained counselor. Or they can chat live 24/7 through the websites CAParentYouthHelpline.org or NationalParentYouthHelpline.org. Parents Anonymous also offers free weekly support groups in California.
Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) called on the federal government to finalize a rule proposed last year that would require insurance companies across the country to cover mental illness and substance use disorders in the same way they cover physical illnesses.
Pion-Berlin argued that many health insurance plans are completely inadequate and cover only a few therapy sessions. She added that because of the extremely low reimbursement rates, it can be difficult to find a therapist who accepts the insurance.
“They claim that two-thirds of people with actual mental health problems do not receive treatment, even though insurance companies claim they have mental health insurance,” Pion-Berlin noted.
Federal data shows that in 2020, fewer than 50% of African American adults received mental health treatment. And in 2018, Asian Americans were 60% less likely to receive mental health treatment than non-Hispanic whites.
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