What's Inside:
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Research in Brief

In the past year since the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health released its report, we’ve seen vigorous advocacy around the Commission’s findings and recommendations. But the President and the Department of Health and Human Services have “low-keyed” the report, whose one-year anniversary passed without mention by the administration.

A July 26 Presidential Proclamation marking the 14th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, cited the Commission in laying out a list of its ADA-related accomplishments: “My Administration has also begun implementing the recommendations of the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. The Commission was established by Executive Order and its report lays out steps that can be taken to improve mental health services and support for people of all ages with mental illness.”

But specific elements of that implementation remain a mystery. A governmental “action plan,” coordinated by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), is reportedly nearing completion. Yet SAMHSA Administrator Charles Curie, MA, ACSW, told a Senate hearing panel last year that he hoped to provide them an “action agenda” within 60 days. Only one federal department has publicly and enthusiastically embraced the Commission’s recommendations, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

Most important, however, the president’s FY 2005 budget for SAMHSA proposed new funding to support the establishment of a program of “state incentive grants for transformation” (SIG grants). As described in the SAMHSA budget justification, the program is aimed at “implementing the Commission’s findings” and “will support development of a comprehensive State mental health plan and improve the mental health services infrastructure.” The program’s goal is to engage multiple service systems and state agencies in statewide planning focused on system change and to enhance the use of existing resources to meet needs of people who have mental illnesses. The budget proposed $44 million in funding for such grants, to include $30 million in new funds. While FY 2005 funding for most federal programs, including SAMHSA's, still awaits final congressional action after the elections, the SIG grant proposal has faired reasonably well to date, given competing demands for funding, including restoration of funding for many programs that the administration sought to cut. The House of Representatives allocated $20 million in funding for the new grant program, while the Senate Appropriations Committee proposed to fund the initiative at the $44 million.

As a founding member of the steering committee of the Campaign for Mental Health Reform, a coalition dedicated to advancing through federal legislation the recommendations of the Commission, NMHA has actively supported the new SIG funding as well as other funding and legislative goals tied to the Commission’s report. Watch The Bell for updates.