Oakland County- Opportunity to Share Your Voice About the Mental Health Service System

Date/Time
Date(s) - 10/17/2016
7:00 pm

Location
Troy Community Center

ARC of Oakland County will host meeting at the Troy Community Center in rooms 304 and 305.

View the event flyer here:  affinity-oakland-flyer-final

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) is asking families of children and youth with serious mental health challenges, people with mental illness, persons with developmental or intellectual disabilities, or substance use disorder and their family members to come and share what they need in a mental health service system. This is a great opportunity to come and share what is important to your child and family.

These meetings are a follow-up to the Lieutenant Governor’s workgroup regarding the Section 298  of Michigan’s fiscal year 2017 budget proposal which included boilerplate language about mental health reform that included shifting Medicaid funding for public mental health services away from community mental health agencies and shifting it to private HMO’s. The boilerplate was changed, but MDHHS needs to write a report to Legislators about suggestions for improving the service system. ACMH, other advocate organizations, community mental health leaders and concerned citizens have been working tirelessly to express their concerns about Section 298 and now we need to hear from you!

In order to gather information from the most important group, those who use mental health services, MDHHS and others created a survey and will be hosting group meetings to ask people the survey questions. To view a copy of the survey questions click here: affinity-group-questions-for-eligible-populations-and-families. To view background about the Affinity Group Meeting process download the following document: background-information-for-affinity-group.

These meetings are a great opportunity for you to share what is important to you and your family as our state looks better administer and fund more and better mental health services.

If you have questions about this process feel free to contact ACMH Executive Director, Jane Shank, by phone at 231-383-1595 or by e-mail at [email protected].

If you are interested in learning more a link to the original 298 workgroup final report is included below for your convenience as well as other supporting information.

behavioral_health_section_298_final_report_7-15-16_531073_7_535662_7

To view background information from MDHHS about Section 298 click here.