MHDDAD :: MH Advocates' Meeting 2007-05-22 2:00pm, Call-In participation..

From Glynda King's very information, high volume (i.e. fair warning given) emailing list..

Below is our proposed agenda for the MH Advocates meeting.

The MH Advocates meeting will be held at 2 Peachtree on May 22nd on the 22nd floor in room 270 at 2:00 PM. Please plan to attend the meeting to meet Audrey Sumner, Mental Health Director, and have the opportunity to discuss MH issues and concerns.

For those who are unable to attend, you may call in 1-886-244-8528 passcode 218749.

If you have any items you would like to add, please email Anna McLaughlin at anna.mclaughlin@gpsn.org.

DRAFT agenda for May 22 advocate's meeting with DMHDDAD

• Welcome Audrey Summer, the new MH chief, and clarification of scope of the job.
• There are problems with implementation of fee-for-service in delivery of child and adolescent mental health services
• How is the Division supporting core providers who are not CSBs in the transition to fee-for-service?
• What plans are being made to protect vulnerable adults as money is removed from that system?
• Will the Division survey providers to ask if the fee structure will support quality services and if they can provide uncompensated services like 24/7 emergency phone contact services?
• Can the billing process be simplified?
• How can/will systems of care be incentivized?
• The scheduled July 1 implementation of the Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility short-term model also has problems
• Children with severe disorders related to years of trauma, children with severe behavioral symptoms and neurological symptoms and/or co-occurring disorders, and children who have a history of sexually aggressive behavior are not able to be served in a short-term model. Who will serve them?
• There is need for greater coordination with DCH.
• How can DHR's rehabilitation model be reconciled with DCH's medical model to serve people more effectively?
• We understand that a mental health block grant plan modification is being made. Please tell us more about that.
• What is being done about the issues we have discussed in the past around people who have mental illnesses and who are homeless?

Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.. :)

This latest blog of mine will serve first and foremost as a cyber cache of the best of the hundreds of emails that hit my inbox each day.. The focus for this, the Georgia Disability Advocates' Calendar (GDAC) blog will be meeting, conference, and other related disability advocacy and self-advocacy event information that might be of interest to persons with disabilities in and around Georgia..

As with informational forwards elsewhere, right from the git-go, you will immediately notice credits are openly provided to the originating information that will appear here.. Soo.. The only thing I will ask of others is that if you heard it here first, please consider linking, referring back to the related post..

GDAC began a few years ago as a personal way of getting involved to help promote disability advocacy events occurring throughout Georgia.. It eventually became a full-blown self-advocacy project commitment during my training with Georgia Voices That Count (GVTC)..

Choosing a very resource-rich, open method of operation for the calendar, among other endeavors, comes from my own first experiences of trying to find information out there on the Net, back when "psychiatric survivor" first became a part of my own vocabulary, back when I was desperately, very desperately trying to find something resembling immediate help, assistance of any kind.. More often than not, some info could be found, but, man, oh, man, were sources the best of well-kept secrets.. To the information seeking individual whose Life may be hanging literally by one single string, this can be a very Life-affecting practice, indeed..

'Nuff rambling.. Let's get down to the business of change, involvement, full community inclusion for people of all disabilities by getting out there into our communities and getting involved.. :WINK:

Note: This blog is now officially considered the primary, much more active spinoff of Georgia Disability Advocates' Calendar with the to-be included posts one day finding their way home to the same.. Very occasionally, where appropriate, related photos will be shared through my Mountain Splash profile over at Yahoo! 360..