The American Rescue Plan Act, commonly called the Covid-19 stimulus package or by its acronym, ARPA, is giving states an opportunity to increase people’s access to Medicaid home- and community-based services, including behavioral health. Section 9817 of the act provides a one-year increase in federal funding that became available on
Nationwide, kids in psychiatric crisis often bounce in and out of hospitalization. “Many times, it’s not the appropriate course of treatment because hospitals are intended for acute, not long-term, stabilization,” says Andrea Rifkind, LCSW-C, program director and therapist at Sheppard Pratt Health System’s Care and Connection for Families in Montgomery
In 2013, Grady EMS in Atlanta, Georgia, launched a pilot to provide 911 callers experiencing mental health challenges an alternative to traditional Emergency Medical Services transport to the emergency department. “We wanted to have a more robust response for callers who didn’t need ambulance transport but who needed a different
It was a Monday night when a devastating tornado—an EF5 on the Fujita Tornado Scale—tore through Oklahoma on May 3, 1999. Four-year-old Cara was among the 44 people who died. To process her despair, Cara’s mother, Anitra Warrior, sought out therapy. “I was struggling immensely,” she says. Therapy, though, wasn’t
In the City of Austin, when a person dials 911, the call taker asks, “Are you calling for police, fire, EMS, or mental health services?” Adding mental health as an option is groundbreaking and allows people in the community to identify whether a psychiatric concern precipitated the call or is
It’s November 22, 2014, in Cleveland, Ohio. A man at a park dials 911 and tells call taker Constance Hollinger, “There’s a guy with a pistol.” “It’s probably fake, but he’s pointing it at everybody.” He says the person is on a swing just outside the Cudell Recreation Center and
Since the start of the Covid pandemic, we’ve heard mental health experts frequently discuss their concerns over isolation and the implication it might have on people’s wellbeing. In a rural state like Montana—a sprawling state defined by rolling grasslands, mountain ranges, low valleys, and water flows—the pandemic compounded an already
In March 2020, Cooper Yacks, an eighth-grader at The County School in Maryland, was excited for his first day of online school. He went to all of his classes, but by bedtime, he hadn’t finished his homework. “I decided, ‘I’ll do it tomorrow morning,’” he says. The following day, he
On March 18, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam signed Senate Bill 1302 into law, which designates a 988 call center and establishes a crisis call center fund. It also provides a monthly telecom tax, making Virginia the first state to pass 988 service fee legislation. Heather Norton, MSW, assistant commissioner at the
Like many communities across the nation, Fulton County in Georgia is working to build a public safety infrastructure that links people in need to community providers and services without criminal justice involvement. Moki Macias is the executive director at the Policing Alternatives and Diversion Initiative (PAD), which started as a pre-arrest