NAPHS LEADERSHIP FORUM
June 26-27, 2006

NAPHS Committee on Behavioral Health Services within General Healthcare Systems

 

The importance of addressing acute care and emergency department challenges was underscored as members of the NAPHS Committee on Behavioral Health Services within General Healthcare Systems met in Washington, DC, on June 26-27, 2006, for the committee’s first “Leadership Forum.” 

In interactive discussions on policy and practice, forum participants shared their concerns with Center for Mental Health Services Director A. Kathryn Power, M.Ed., who is overseeing the federal government’s implementation of recommendations from the President’s Commission on Mental Health. The committee urged Dr. Power to encourage greater participation of hospitals in all partnership efforts being implemented with federal system transformation dollars. Dr. Power encouraged NAPHS members to share successful models of collaboration and change. She also noted her own personal commitment to greater cross-training and collaboration between the substance abuse and mental health communities. A new Co-occurring Center for Excellence technical assistance center (see http://coce.samhsa.gov) is a step in this direction.

The committee also had the opportunity to talk with Bill Emmet of the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors on acute care issues, with the Institute of Medicine’s Ann E.K. Page, R.N., M.P.H., on IOM recommendations for greater integration of behavioral and general health care, and with Joe Dolittle and Peter C. Brown of the Institute for Behavioral Healthcare Improvement on emergency department quality improvement.

The committee’s Steering Committee, chaired by Dennis P. King of Spring Harbor Hospital, will work with the full committee this summer to develop recommendations to the NAPHS Board this fall on key issues evolving from the discussion.

Members of the Steering Committee include (from left to right): Gregory Gattman, vice president, behavioral services, Palmetto Health Behavioral Care, Columbia, SC; Marina Cecchini,  administrator, Shands Vista, Gainesville, FL; Gail Ryder, administrative director, behavioral health service line, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY; Committee Chair Dennis P. King, CEO, Spring Harbor Hospital, vice president behavioral health, MaineHealth, Westbrook, ME; Paul Jeffrey, vice president of behavioral health services, Moses Cone Health System, Greensboro, NC; and Alan Barry, Ph.D., administrative director, Norwalk Hospital, Norwalk, CT.

Members of the full committee represent organizations throughout the United States.

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