NAMI Legislative Update
December 4, 2014
Breaking News:
DHS MERGING CHEMICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH DIVISION
WITH DISABILITY DIVISION.
NAMI Minnesota is concerned with the announcement today that the
Commissioner of the Department of Human Services has decided to merge the
disability services division with the chemical and mental health division and to
appoint a new assistant commissioner for this new division. This decision was
made without the input of the mental health community.
The announcement reads as follows:
We will restructure Chemical and Mental Health Services and Continuing Care to
form a new, yet-to-be-named administration. While the details will need to be
worked out, these areas will be reorganized to better align mental health policy
and disability services and provide a stronger focus on aging. I have appointed
Jennifer DeCubellis from Hennepin County as assistant commissioner for this new
area that will include mental health, disability services, alcohol and drug abuse
services, and deaf and hard of hearing services. Jennifer has most recently served
as assistant county administrator for health at Hennepin County, where she has
been responsible for health reform efforts and integration initiatives.
The Mental Health Legislative Network had contacted the commissioner about two
years ago about its concern that the Continuing Care Division was making policies
that impacted people with mental illnesses without understanding the unique
issues and without adequate input. The commissioner commissioned a study to
look at this issue and vowed to address the network's concerns. In recent months,
the relationship with the CC Division had been improving.
Current law states (245.696) that there shall be an assistant commissioner of
mental health "The Mental Health Division shall be under the supervision of an
assistant commissioner of mental health appointed by the commissioner." The
reason for passing this law was to ensure that mental health was not subsumed
under another division and to ensure that the needs of children and adults with
mental illnesses would be adequately represented among senior leadership at the
department.
This change is very concerning to the mental health community. Today NAMI
Minnesota and the Mental Health Association sent out a press release outlining our
concerns.
The number of staff in the disability division is far greater than in the Chemical
and Mental Health Division. The new assistant commissioner will be spreading her
time between two very different issues. Children and adults with mental illnesses
can recover and not become permanently disabled by their mental illness, so the
programs to meet their needs must be very different than those typically covered
under the disability division. Pairing these two issues together reflects an attitude
that secondary and tertiary prevention efforts are not effective. While this
decision may be stated as an effort to integrate mental health and disability
services, in fact all it does it may diminish the focus on mental health.
NAMI's concerns with this change have nothing to do with the person being
appointed to this position. Ms. DeCubellis is currently the Assistant County
Administrator- Health in Hennepin County and during her time there embarked on
a number of creative initiatives.
NAMI's executive director has spoken with Commissioner Jesson and the new
Assistant Commissioner DeCubellis regarding our concerns. They both stated their
commitment to improving the mental health system. We have been assured that if
this does not work, we could return to the previous structure.
NAMI Minnesota wants to thank the current acting assistant commissioner of the
Chemical and Mental Health Division, Glenace Edwall. She has been an incredible
advocate for children and adults, seeking to expand access and improve quality.
We hope that she will continue to play a major role in shaping and pushing
through the 2015 legislative proposals.
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