Fighting for Financial Relief
To help alleviate the ongoing need for financial assistance in community-based services, we ensured that mental health and substance use treatment organizations were a focus during government relief package negotiations. Our advocacy helped lead to block grant funding as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, as well as additional provider relief funding made available through the Department of Health and Human Services, particularly for those in rural communities and serving vulnerable patient populations.
Making a Mark on Capitol Hill
Our advocacy this year helped secure the bipartisan introduction of the Excellence in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment Act of 2021, which would allow every state the option to apply to participate in the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) demonstration program. CCBHCs are now in 42 states and provide expanded access to life-saving services, reduced wait times and more staff to address rising demand. We also united hundreds of people online for Hill Day at Home, our advocacy event that keeps health care professionals informed of policy and social trends and teaches them how to get more out of their advocacy. We focused on achieving nationwide expansion and adoption of CCBHCs, fulfilling the promise of 988, addressing the workforce shortage and curbing the substance use crisis.
Extending and Expanding CCBHCs
The creation of a stable and predictable national model of care and financing through CCBHCs is central to our long-term vision. Our work to bring CCBHCs to all 50 states and territories continued, with the demonstration program extended for three years and the addition of Kentucky and Michigan. We successfully advocated for a significant increase in funding for CCBHC grants and are now supporting 430+ CCBHCs across 42 states, Guam and Washington, D.C. – a 92% increase from the start of 2021. We will continue to advocate for grant funding and to extend and expand the CCBHC program.
Paving the Way for 988
We continued laying the foundation to implement 988 – the nationwide mental health crisis and suicide prevention hotline – in 2022 by collaborating with National Suicide Prevention Lifeline operators, first-responders, law enforcement, and mental health and substance use treatment organizations to assess the readiness and needs of those who will be impacted by 988 and plan next steps. We also published a roadmap to help organizations address crisis response demands created by the hotline and secured passage of a crisis stabilization and community reentry bill that creates community-level crisis response programs and trainings for organizations serving justice-involved individuals. We will continue to shepherd 988 support legislation through Congress, while helping our members and state and federal partners implement the hotline and related crisis response systems next year.
Setting the Stage for 2022
With an eye toward 2022, we fought hard to successfully include key mental health- and substance use-related provisions in proposed legislative packages, including the Excellence Act (CCBHC legislation), significant investments in home- and community-based services; mobile crisis care incentives; the Medicaid Reentry Act and ACA/Medicaid expansion, which would permanently extend the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP); and other provisions that will move our field forward. We will continue to ensure that policies supporting mental health and substance use treatment providers and organizations remain a central focus for lawmakers in 2022.