Medical Marijuana Lawsuit Filed
Today I was served with a lawsuit that challenges the State (and the Department) for not implementing the dispensary portion of the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act. The case, filed in the AZ Court of Appeals, asks a judge to order us to follow the rules that we published on April 14 and begin accepting dispensary applications. We worked very hard [...]
Fed’s Release New Plan to Control Prescription Drug Abuse
More than 1,100 Arizonans died from drug poisoning, which is more than the number of Arizonans that die in car accidents every year. This isn’t just an Arizona public health crisis, it’s a national one. Last week the federal government released a new plan to address the national prescription drug abuse epidemic and announced new Federal requirements aimed at educating [...]
Mental Health First Aid
Have you heard about Mental Health First Aid? It’s designed to quickly help folks with a behavioral health need. It’s a lot like CPR or other forms of first aid for physical health conditions in that anyone can learn and apply the concepts soon after going through the short certification training. Mental Health First Aid prepares folks to respond and [...]
Behavioral Health Services in Maricopa County
We recently extended our contract with the Regional Behavioral Health Authority in Maricopa County through September 30, 2013. We authorized the contract extension (which will be the 6th year of the contract) so that we can better serve our members and families while we hammer out the details of several new initiatives designed to improve the quality of the services [...]
Vital Records Self-sufficiency
One of the budget bills that passed and was signed last legislative session (Laws 2011, Chapter 31, § 7) allows our Office of Vital Records to set new fees for copies of registered certificates, certified copies, amendments, etc. Our Office of Vital Records will use the new fees to “self-fund” the program, meaning we’ll no longer receive State General Funds to run the program. [...]
Hospital & ACPTC Passes
Over the weekend a resident of our Arizona Community Protection and Treatment Center (ACPTC) escaped while he was on an approved pass to go to church. The resident was accompanied by one of our staff during the outing. The resident was authorized to go on the pass to church because he had “LRA” or “Least Restrictive Alternative” status as determined [...]