News and Notions

May 05, 2019

DBHDS released a revised org chart, described as being “future structure,”  for their Community Behavioral Health Services when they announce the appointment of Lisa Jobe-Shields, PhD as Deputy Director, Community Services.  See chart here; it may be a good visual aid in understanding the roles and relationships! They have also released a Notice of Upcoming Changes in the CHRIS system to bring it into alignment with the regulatory changes of last Fall.  The memo does not specify when the changes will “go live,” but does indicate more information will be posted on the DBHDS Website!  We recognize that is not terribly helpful, and will try to announce the changes here when they occur! Drs. Carey (Secretary HHR), Melton and Lee shared the stage for a presentation on the State of the State last week and their focus was almost exclusively on Behavioral Health; Dr. Melton did share some of the outcomes of the recent DOJ Status Conference – see the News Post of 23 April. We did have the opportunity to spend a few minutes with Megan Healy, the Workforce Development member of the Governor’s Cabinet.  Our purpose was to reintroduce the notion of building a “pipeline” for DSPs from high school directly into a career path in the DD field.  There will be further conversations. We are also engaging in discussions about the immediate future of TDT – while the school-based service discussion is in a later phase of the BH Redesign, it seems almost inevitable that providers will not be able to sustain their TDT programs while the redesign discussions continue. That’s the news – our notion is that there is a lot of work on several issues yet to be done!  To keep up with what’s on the horizon, renew your membership now!