February 2, 2023 – Dually eligible individuals covered under Medicare and Medicaid living in rural areas struggle to access the services, care coordination, and integrated care programs they need. To address these needs, HMA conducted multi-state roundtable discussions with diverse stakeholders to create The Health Equity & Access for Rural Dually Eligible Individuals (HEARD) Toolkit. During this webinar, our experts summarized and discussed the toolkit’s actionable solutions for improving health and social outcomes for rural dually eligible individuals.
November 15, 2022 – Deeply rooted structures, systems, and beliefs have perpetuated racial inequities within substance use and mental health treatment and recovery settings. Racism and associated traumas add to these injustices and may influence how people of color experience and seek help for behavioral health needs. During this webinar, hear from community-based practitioners, who are leveraging evidence-based practices centered in equity, to provide support to our most vulnerable through harm reduction, overdose prevention and linkage to community treatment services.
November 8, 2022 – Substance and opioid use disorders (S/OUD) affect people from all walks of life, including those active in faith communities. Yet many faith leaders do not know how to effectively support members of their congregations and their families who are struggling with these diseases. Faith groups and faith leaders from all denominations can be critical allies in addressing the stigma of S/OUD and building safe, compassionate spaces for individuals to get spiritual support along with the physical, mental, and emotional help they need to recover from S/OUD.
Presenters led participants through the myths and facts about S/OUD most relevant to faith communities and how to create faith-based prevention initiatives that can work in collaboration with other state S/OUD prevention and harm reduction strategies.
November 7, 2022 – The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act offers new funding for states to develop a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) Demonstration program. A new CCBHC Planning Grant Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for states has just been released with a deadline of Monday December 19, 2022. During this webinar – a follow up to our October 6 webinar – experts from HMA and the National Council for Mental Wellbeing provided an overview of the CCBHC Demonstration program NOFO, offered strategies for using CCBHC as a strategic transformational opportunity for systems improvement, reviewed the NOFO requirements and key changes from previous opportunities, and outline strategies for developing a successful response.
October 25, 2022 – Industry stakeholders are non-traditional partners who can be effective in supporting and expanding opioid overdose prevention efforts. During this webinar, attendees heard about one state’s experience using data to identify and target stakeholders in high-risk industries, including construction and food services. We shared a framework for industry-specific prevention efforts—including use of data; identification of key partners; engagement strategies, and education; stigma reduction, and harm reduction activities—that other locales can adapt and integrate into their overall opioid prevention and response strategies. In addition, we identified possible funding opportunities to support this type of effort.
October 18, 2022 – Community Response Teams are vital cross-sector, data driven, community-based collective action initiatives that address the local opioid crisis through harm reduction education, Naloxone distribution, and data. During this webinar, HMA speakers addressed the rationale, framework, funding, and implementation of successful initiatives that serve as models for other states, including case studies from California and Delaware.