Behavioral Health – Page 20 – AZ Dept. of Health Services News

NAMI Report

By azdhs-admin|2017-02-10T09:51:52-07:00March 21st, 2011|Behavioral Health|

The National Alliance on Mental Illness released a report this month that included policy recommendations for states to consider including educating the public, families and peers about mental illness and incorporating behavioral health screening into primary care. The good news is that we’re on the mark here in Arizona as we’ve already begun to implement [...]

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Mental Health First Aid Rolling

By azdhs-admin|2017-02-10T09:51:52-07:00March 15th, 2011|Behavioral Health|

The first round of Instructor Training for Mental Health First Aid was completedin Tucson and our efforts are already paying huge dividends. 23 new trainers graduated from the intensive 5-day training program and are now certified Mental Health First Aid Instructors! The new trainers include peers, family members, behavioral health providers, T/RBHA staff, Pima Community [...]

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New Forensic Hospital Transition Team

By azdhs-admin|2017-02-10T09:51:53-07:00March 10th, 2011|Behavioral Health|

Construction of our brand new Forensic Unit at the Arizona State Hospital<http://www.azdhs.gov/azsh/about_azsh.htm> is proceeding on schedule, and we’re looking forward to turning the key late this fall. To get ready, we’ve pulled together a “Transition Team” to start planning the transition. The Forensic team has recently organized their treatment units and approaches to focus not [...]

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Arizona Peer and Family Coalition

By azdhs-admin|2011-03-03T06:40:20-07:00March 3rd, 2011|Behavioral Health|

Congrats to the Arizona Peer and Family Coalition for rolling out their new user friendly website last week. The Coalition is a group of people from AZ’s behavioral health community, including peers, family members, government representatives, and providers. Their mission is to advocate for statewide behavioral Health policy development by peers and family members. Their [...]

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AHCCCS Coverage Changes?

By azdhs-admin|2017-02-10T09:51:54-07:00February 24th, 2011|Behavioral Health, General|

A few weeks ago I wrote about the portion of the proposed FY 2012 budget that would suspend for 2 years AHCCCS (Medicaid) eligibility for adults without children (called childless adults). As I mentioned in the earlier post, that kind of change would need to be approved by then federal government. Last week, the Secretary [...]

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Mental Health First Aid Coming to Arizona

By azdhs-admin|2017-02-10T09:51:57-07:00February 16th, 2011|Behavioral Health|

Mental Health First Aid is a novel, evidence-based public education program designed to teach non-professional people a five-step process to assess a situation, select and implement appropriate interventions, and help a person in crisis or who may be developing the signs and symptoms of mental illness. The groundbreaking training equips people to provide initial help [...]

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Marijuana Use & Earlier Onset of Psychosis?

By azdhs-admin|2011-02-08T10:48:22-07:00February 8th, 2011|Behavioral Health, General|

A number of published studies have found that using marijuana (and other psychoactive substances) is associated with an earlier onset of psychotic illness (notice I said “is associated with” rather than “causes”). National mental health surveys have repeatedly found more substance use, especially cannabis use, among people with a diagnosis of a psychotic disorder. A [...]

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Behavioral Health Trifecta

By azdhs-admin|2017-02-10T09:51:57-07:00February 8th, 2011|Behavioral Health|

This month we also distributed to stakeholders (and posted on our website) a new resource called “An Introduction to Arizona’s Public Behavioral Health System.” It's a high-level summary for people who wish to better understand who we are and what we do. The short document covers the service delivery structure and the continuum of care available, [...]

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Integration Forum and Materials

By azdhs-admin|2011-02-07T09:07:39-07:00February 7th, 2011|Behavioral Health, Prevention|

Our primary care and behavioral health folks put together a fabulous forum called the Arizona Integrated Models of Care in Behavioral Health and Primary Care Forum. Our team joined with the Milbank Memorial Fund to sponsor a forum on January 25 and 26 in Chandler, AZ, for policy makers in both the mental health and [...]

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Groundbreaking Statewide Outcome Dashboard Goes Live

By azdhs-admin|2011-02-04T09:14:15-07:00February 4th, 2011|Behavioral Health|

One of our primary objectives over the last couple of years in behavioral health has been to shift the focus of our performance measures away from process and procedures toward actual outcomes. In other words, we don’t want to measure our success on whether someone’s paperwork is right, but on whether the services we provide [...]

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