150+ Organizations Support Expansion of Geriatric Mental Health Services in NYS
Over 150 organizations have signed-on to our one-pager asking the legislature for an additional $3 million for expanded geriatric mental health services and for training and workforce development.
Click here to view the current list of organizations.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Action Alert!
We Need Enhanced Advocacy for More Geriatric Mental Health Funding!
To Help, You Can:
1. Meet with Your Local Legislators
In order for more attention to be paid to geriatric mental health, we need lots of contact with legislators over the next couple of weeks. That is why we need you to meet with your local legislator(s) to talk about the importance of more funding for geriatric mental health services. We’ll even provide you with talking points and material to give him or her. If you schedule a meeting and need material, let us know. Or, if you meet with your local legislator(s), please let us know.
2. Submit Letter to the Editors
We need you to send a letter to the editor of your local newspaper(s) about the importance of increased funding for geriatric mental health services. You can download a sample by clicking here. Or you can feel free to write your own. If you plan to submit a letter, please let us know.
3. Share Stories of Older Adults with Mental Disorders
Do you know older adults with mental disorders who are willing to tell or have their story told? We are working with a public relations firm to generate media coverage about older adults with mental health problems. Stories could include the need for, or the beneficial impact of, mental health services. For example:
- Community support services and how it averted placement in a nursing home or adult home
- Family support e.g. respite, psycho- education, counseling
- Mobile crisis and/or treatment services
- Treatment services in home and community settings such as senior centers and NORCs
- Integrated treatment for those with co- occurring substance abuse and mental disorders
- Culturally competent services for minority populations
- Screening, assessment, and/or treatment initiatives
- Integrated mental health and health services in primary health care, home health, or day programs such as psychiatric rehabilitation centers or adult medical day care
- Legal advocacy to assist older adults get benefits and services they need to remain in the community
- And more
If you have stories to share, please let us know.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Seereiter Joins the Governor's Staff
Michael Seereiter, former Public Policy Director of the Mental Health Association in NYS joined the Governor’s staff as the Program Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services. He will be working on issues related to people with psychiatric disabilities, developmental disabilities, and addiction treatment needs. Michael has been a tireless advocate and an incredible asset to the mental health community over the years. It will be wonderful to have him as an ally in the Governor’s Office. We look forward to working with him in his new role.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Medicaid Personal Care Services Restored
In his 21-Day Budget Amendment, Governor Spitzer restored $6 million in funding for ‘Level 1’ personal care services for qualified recipients. These are non- medical services such as household, nutritional, and environmental services that are essential to enabling people to live in their own homes.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Geriatric Mental Health Alliance Upcoming Events
May 31, 2007 - Save the Date: 1st Annual Geriatric Mental Health Alliance Conference. Please join fellow Alliance members from around the state for our first annual conference entitled “Geriatric Mental Health: Challenges and Opportunities Across the Horizon” on May 31, 2007 from 10:00-4:00pm at the Hotel Pennsylvania. Steve Bartels, MD, MS, Professor of Psychiatry, Dartmouth Medical School, will be the keynote speaker. Dr. Bartels served as a consultant to the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health's Subcommittee on Older Adults, and he is a past president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. More details to follow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Upcoming Events
March 8, 2007 – Symposium on The Comprehensive Approach to Dementia The Montefiore Medical Center is sponsoring their 11th annual dementia symposium entitled “The Comprehensive Approach to Dementia: A Practical Update for Practitioners in Mental Health, Primary Care and Long Term Care Settings” on March 8, 2007 at The New York Academy of Medicine. GMHA members may attend for a reduced fee of $25. Please click here for more information.
March 19, 2007 – Managing Challenging Behaviors in Dementia hosted by The Alzheimer’s Disease Center and the Aging and Dementia Research Center of the Silberstein Institute with Nationally Acclaimed Dementia Expert and Trainer, Teepa Snow from 10am-4pm at NYU Medical Center. For more information, please view the flyer and registration.
March 21, 2007 – Geriatric Mental Health Conference: Overcoming the Obstacles Through Advocacy, Practice and Research sponsored by the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service Alumni Association and others. The keynote is Michael Friedman. The conference will be at the Fordham University School of Law from 9:00am- 4:00pm. For more information, please view the announcement .
April 18, 2007 – Save the Date: Conference on Advanced Dementia The Schervier Center for Research in Geriatric Care is sponsoring a conference entitled “Advanced Dementia as a Terminal Illness: Translating Theory into Everyday Practice” on April 18, 2007. The keynote speaker is Ladislav Volicer, an expert in dementia care. Please click here for more information.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Terrific Presentation by John Zeisel
John Zeisel, Ph.D., President and Co-Founder of Hearthstone Alzheimer Care, gave a terrific best practices presentation last week on non- pharmacological interventions for Alzheimer’s treatment. He spoke about six brain based practices: strength-based awareness, resistiveness-to- care communication, environmental design treatment, spaced retrieval learning, Montessori activity programming, and art and culture community involvement. These interventions improve cognitive functioning, functional abilities, and behaviors in people with Alzheimer’s and can easily be taught to, and implemented by, providers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NY/NY III RFPS Announced
Late last week DOHMH released two RFPs for NY/NY III units, one for scattered-site supportive housing (850 units) and one for congregate supportive housing (3,000 units). The RFPs do not mention older adults; however they are also not excluded. Organizations serving homeless older adults with mental illness should consider submitting a proposal.
Here are the links to download the RFPs:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/acco/acc o-rfp-NYNYCongregate-20070117-form.shtml
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/acco/acc o-rfp-NYNYScattersite-20070117-form.shtml
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Medicare and Mental Health
From the Medicare Rights Center Advocacy Update
Simple Fairness
February 15, 2007 • Volume 7, Issue 7
This week, an overwhelming majority of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions voted for legislation requiring all private insurance companies to cover mental illness treatment at the same rate as they do for treatment of physical conditions. The vote signals likely passage in the Senate, and similar legislation has strong support in the House of Representatives.
These bills are a good step toward lifting the unfair restrictions on mental health coverage in the private insurance plans that cover 113 million Americans. According to cosponsor Senator Pete Domenici, Republican of New Mexico, “What we are doing here is simple fairness.” As lawmakers move toward mental health equity, however, they should not forget that similar action is sorely needed to provide equal access to mental health treatment for people with Medicare.
Under current Medicare rules, Medicare pays 80 percent of the cost of a doctor treating a physical ailment and patients pay 20 percent. But mental health patients must pay half the cost for therapy treatments out of pocket because Medicare only covers 50 percent.
This payment limitation prevents older adults and people with disabilities who cannot afford the cost of therapy from receiving proper treatment. Letting mental illness go undiagnosed and untreated severely hinders the quality of life for people living with afflictions like schizophrenia and depression, reduces their ability to function and leads to higher mortality rates—because they cannot pay.
Nonmedication treatment for mental health conditions have been shown to provide significant relief. For many older adults, a particularly vulnerable population, therapeutic interventions not only help treat mental health problems effectively, but also help strengthen their ability to cope with the stresses of living with mental illnesses, improve compliance with drug regimens and offer social support.
However, the inequity built into Medicare’s payment rules for mental health treatment makes treatment out of reach for people with limited financial resources and reinforces the outdated notion that mental illnesses are less important to treat than physical diseases.
The sponsors of the mental health parity bills are optimistic that Congress will finally pass the long- awaited measures. But our representatives in the House and Senate who support the proposed legislation must remember that these bills still fail to provide people with Medicare the equality of care that they need. Until older adults and people with disabilities living with mental health conditions are also given coverage parity, Medicare’s rules are still, simply, unfair.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Medical Records
“An estimated 59 percent of all disabled [Medicare] beneficiaries have some type of mental disorder, compared to 21 percent of aged beneficiaries” (“Medicare and Mental Health: The Fundamentals,” National Health Policy Forum, November 27, 2006).
“The Mental Health Parity Act of 2007 (S. 558) was today approved (18-3) by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The bill requires health insurance plans that offer mental health coverage to provide that coverage on par with financial and treatment covered offered for other physical illnesses like heart disease, diabetes or asthma” (“Senate Committee Passes Mental Health Parity Bill,” Office of Senator Pete V. Domenici press release, February 14, 2007).
The Medicare Mental Health Copayment Equity Act, previously introduced in Congress, would reduce the coinsurance cost for Medicare mental health visits from the current 50 percent to the 20 percent level required for all other medical services covered under Medicare Part B (“H.R. 1125 [109th]: Medicare Mental Health Copayment Equity Act of 2005,” March 3, 2005).
