Behavioral Health Services Budget Updates
Introductory Message from Dr. Nelson
Hi, I'm Dr. Laura Nelson from the Arizona Department of Health Service's Division of Behavioral Health.
As you may be aware, Arizona continues to experience a budget crisis. As a result, deep budget cuts were recently approved that will impact publicly funded behavioral health services. I know that many of you are worried and have important questions and concerns about these funding reductions and how they will affect you or your loved ones.
Our commitment is to continually share updated information with you including through the use of a dedicated Web site, frequent emails, and numerous community meetings around the state. We want to make sure we hear and properly address your questions and concerns, while we continue to focus on providing high quality care. Please be assured that this is a top priority for the department and for me personally.
At this time, we have dedicated project teams researching and planning for implementation around 3 key service areas:
- Changes to the covered benefits for adults with serious mental illness who do not qualify for Medicaid;
- Ensuring that we have a comprehensive and effective statewide crisis system for anyone experiencing a behavioral health crisis; and
- Clarifying the benefits related to supported housing for adults with serious mental illness.
We understand how important any decisions made in these 3 service areas are, and all of these decisions must be carefully and thoughtfully considered.
As a start, we have included a service recipient and family member on each of these 3 teams and are incorporating their valuable input. In the coming weeks, we will be heavily reaching out to other stakeholders, including members and families, who will be impacted by these changes so that we can get as much input as possible.
Please know that we understand your concerns and that you want and need information. At this time, many questions still need to be addressed, but we recognize how critical it is to keep you informed of what we do know when we know it. Our entire team is focused on getting answers to you as quickly as we can.
For now, I invite you to take a look at the website we've established to share important information. You will find a section for Frequently Asked Questions at the top. These questions will be updated on a weekly basis using questions and concerns we hear from the public. On the website, you can also review basic information about our behavioral health system and terminology, as well as link to the regional behavioral health agency in your area. If after reading this information you still have questions or comments, please email us or give us a call.
Clearly, these are challenging times for all of us and the state of Arizona. We must work through these challenges together. As necessary changes must be made, you can have confidence that my team at the Division of Behavioral Health will work with you and communicate openly and honestly with you. Our vision remains the same, and that is for all Arizona residents touched by our public behavioral health system have easy access to high quality services with resiliency and recovery principles at their core and that these services assist people in achieving their goals for the quality of life in their homes and communities that they desire.
Thank you.