Defining Serious Mental Illness

By: Beth Anne Nichols, NH Mental Health Block Grant Plan Administrator New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services In the rugged landscape that is New Hampshire’s mental health system, serious mental illness (SMI) is a powerful thing. On an individual level, an adult experiencing SMI becomes eligible for community-based psychiatric rehabilitation. Psychiatric rehabilitation consists of an array of services reimbursable by NH Medicaid alone. The privately insured may access these services via a sliding fee scale – if they are assessed and determined to be SMI. The capstone of NH’s Community… Read More
Strategic Sustainability Learning Collaborative

The following blog post is written by our friends at Open Minds. Open Minds is a Behavioral Health Market Research and Management Consulting firm based out of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. They specialize in the health and human service sector to serve individuals with the mission of providing providers and payer organizations the resources and knowledge to best inform their practice. They believe that by helping organizations in the field make better, more informed, decisions, they will have the means necessary to improve services to those individuals with the most chronic complex needs. Greetings… Read More
Project SAFESPACE, Part 1 of 2

Background and Project Overview In 2013, The Children’s Bureau awarded Kentucky a grant to enhance access to behavioral health services for children in the custody of the Department for Community Based Services (DCBS) and placed in out of home care (OOHC). This grant is a five-year cooperative agreement between the University of Louisville (U of L), DCBS, the Department for Behavioral Health and Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities (DBHDID), Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) and Kentucky Partnerships for Families and Children (KPFC). Each partnering agency serves a different role in the implementation of Project… Read More