The 25th Annual Rosalyn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Challenges and Opportunities for Behavioral Health Care
November 2009
This two day symposium was the 25th Annual Rosalyn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy. Mrs. Carter convened an interdisciplinary group of experts from across the country to address the challenges and opportunities in behavioral health care, prevention and promotion policies. There were representatives from rural, urban and community agencies, federal government officials, insurance companies and Mental Health policy makers from around the country. All gathered to provide insight into the complexity of health care reform in addition to offering options to ensure mental health is well positioned in the reform efforts.
There were three expert panels to provide guidance for the work groups. The first panel addressed building the health home. Suggestions for building health homes were discussed among the panelist and the participants. Several existing efforts in building health homes can be found at the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, at www.NationalCouncil.org.
The second panel addressed comparative effectiveness research (CER). This panel focused on moving information from research to practice. There was much debate regarding barriers to the research to practice process. There were passionate conversations between the panel and the participants regarding CER. In addition, the national medical director for Aetna Behavioral Health Plans noted that in the current environment health care is a "messy world". He reported there are significant access issues of overrepresentation of mentally ill with chronic illnesses that make up 80% of the insurance dollars. Although the research may indicate a particular treatment the challenge for insurance companies is to wed the need of patients with the business side of insurance companies. Two sites were provided for further information; www.effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov and www.iom.edu.
The topic for the third panel was information technology, with an emphasis on putting the patient at the center of the information flow particularly regarding Personal Health Records (PHR) for substance abusers and the chronic severely mentally ill person. This is considered a recently recognized need. However the experts noted to expect multiple challenges with this goal including socio-cultural challenges.
All the participants in the symposium participated in work groups with specific charges. The groups were charged with developing recommendations with implementation details for submission to the Carter Center Mental Health Program. In addition each member was required to commit to at least one activity that supported the recommendations of the group.
Finally, the dinner speaker, Alan Deutschman, Journalist, author provided a delightful speech emphasizing the most common approach to mental health care in the American culture is through the 3 F’s, facts, fear and force. However the culture would benefit by adopting an alternative approach, the 3 R’s relate, repeat and reframe. The participants of the symposium were encouraged to implement the 3 R’s as these afford a more authentic therapeutic relationship for the population we serve.
Attending this Symposium was all I’d hoped for. I was immersed into the policy side of mental health care by the expert panelists and the experienced participants. Fortunately I was a member and the reporter for the group addressing Cultural and Ethnic Minorities. I had the pleasure of working closely with the moderator, Dr. Janice Cooper the Director the National Center for Children in Policy.
Thank you to SAMSHA MFP and Dr. Faye Gary for this opportunity.
Sincerely,
Teresa Richardson, MSN, APRN, BC