Director's Corner
Director's
Update - Spring 2007
Kimberly A. Johnson, Director
With spring comes legislative action and while it’s not over yet so far there’s some good news.
LD 987 "An Act To Provide Gambling Addiction Counseling Services through the Office of Substance Abuse," sponsored by Rep. Anne Perry, D-Calais, is moving through the legislature. The bill allows OSA to establish standards for gambling addiction counseling services and other activities that relate to the prevention and treatment of gambling addiction. This is a simple change in the statute. It allows OSA to provide training and education to licensed alcohol and drug counselors to address this growing problem in the State of Maine. In the past two years OSA has trained more than 160 counseling professionals to deal with problem gamblers. Once the legislation is passed, OSA will be able to access money to pay providers who treat individuals and families who are impacted by problem gambling.
The Criminal Justice Committee voted against passage of LD 387, "An Act To Improve the Driver Education and Evaluation Programs," sponsored by Rep. William Walcott, D-Lewiston, that would have required all OUI offenders complete DEEP’s risk reduction education program, PRIME for Life. While the concerns expressed by committee members were primarily about treatment, not the education program, they still voted “Ought Not to Pass” on LD 387. The chair explained that the members had “more questions than answers” on the bill.
We have lots of other things going on. Our parent media campaign, "Find Out More, Do More," continues to be a hit in communities and with parents. Materials developed this year focus on monitoring children and teens to prevent underage drinking. This spring, we are launching a new component that will focus on parental modeling. There are many things we do as parents that we often don’t think about or notice. The purpose of this campaign is to help parents be aware of messages they inadvertently send their children about alcohol. Preliminary information about modeling was included at a Black Bear Hockey program this winter and was well received. In addition to television ads, there will be print and Web material with information for parents. Also this spring, we are creating videos for Time-Warner Cable’s "video on demand system." We are excited to share these new products and hope you will find them useful.
The process is well underway on the Strategic Planning and Environmental Programming Prevention Grants. It’s a five step model that includes needs assessment, capacity building and strategic planning. Of the 15 grantees, 13 have completed their needs assessment and have chosen priorities. About half of them have begun drafting their strategic plans. We expect those plans to be done between July and Aug. 31.
The Healthy Maine Partnership RFP applications are due June 4. Those grants will go out on September 1. These are the new three-year grants to non-profit groups in the newly established public health regions. All eight regions have submitted bundled letters of intent to do substance abuse prevention.
There have been significant changes in the way we are writing some of our treatment provider contracts from now on. In State Fiscal Year 2008, OSA agreements with outpatient and intensive outpatient service providers will be performance based agreements with incentives or penalties based on the performance of the provider. In past years agreements for these services were expense based. A copy of the SFY 2008 agreement template for these services, which contains the new contract language, will be posted to the DHHS Division of Purchased Services website. The performance measures now include access and retention expectations. We want to move the system toward thinking from a customer perspective and identifying barriers to access and finding ways to keep people in treatment long enough for it to work. Another change to the treatment contracts forbids contracted agencies from having policies and practices that discriminate against people who are using medication to assist their recovery.
We are seeing some exciting preliminary results of the first 18 months of agency participation in the Network for the Improvement of Addiction Treatment. NIATx is a partnership between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Paths to Recovery national program and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Center for Substance Abuse Treatment’s Strengthening Treatment Access and Retention program. Examples from Acadia Hospital in Bangor, illustrate some of the changes that treatment programs are making. Significant reductions in days waiting for treatment were observed among programs that attempted changes in residential, intensive outpatient or outpatient care. Strategies that reduced days to treatment included on-demand scheduling, next day admissions, simplification of intake procedures, expanded hours of operation, elimination of redundant paperwork, cross-training and enhanced telephone responsiveness. Over 15 months, mean days from first contact to first treatment declined 37 percent. The number of days between assessment and first treatment declined 33 percent. As a result, 65 percent of clients went in for assessment, compared to 25 percent before changes were implemented. The number of “no-shows” decreased significantly. The overall show rate increased 16 percent to 66 percent from 57 percent. Clients making it in to treatment increased to 52 percent from 19 percent. NIATx teaches drug and alcohol treatment centers to use process improvement strategies to improve access to and retention in addiction treatment. NIATx provides treatment organizations with collaborative learning opportunities and technical support using the PDSA -- Plan, Do, Study, Act -- change cycle to meet the following aims:
- Reduce waiting time between the first request for service and the first treatment session
- Reduce the number of patients who do not keep an appointment
- Increase the number of people admitted to treatment
- Increase continuation from the first through the fourth treatment session.
Agencies currently participating in the NIATx Network include: Acadia Hospital, The Addiction Resource Center, Aroostook Mental Health Center, Community Concepts, Counseling Services Inc., Crossroads for Women, Kennebec Valley Mental Health, Maine General Medical Center, and Wellspring Health Center.
I’d like to welcome our two newest employees. Cheryl Cichowski is a prevention specialist. She primarily works on the SPF/SIG project and will also be a project officer on the new Healthy Maine Partnership grants. She comes to us from the Knox County Community Health Coalition. Cheryl has six years experience in the prevention area. She’s also a trained American Sign Language interpreter.
Michelle Brown is working for us out of the University of Maine at Orono as a prevention fellow. Her position is funded by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention for one year and that can be renewed for two more years. Michelle will learn substance abuse prevention and CSAP’s SPF prevention model.
Thank you for visiting our website. Please email us at osa.ircosa.maine.gov if you need assistance accessing any information.
Previous Updates
What's New - Winter 2007
What's New - Fall 2006
What's New - Spring 2006
What's New - Fall 2005
What's New - Summer 2005
What's New - Spring 2005
What's New - Winter 2005
What's New - Summer 2004
What's New - Spring 2004
What's New - August 2003
What's New - January 2003
What's New - August 2002
