Latest / The Mental Health Evolution / Ep 23: Building a Mental Health System That Works with Sue Abderholden
Transcript
- 0:00(Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) This podcast is part of the Frederick Podcast Network.
- 0:03Learn more at ListenFrederick.com.
- 0:05Welcome to Mental Health Evolution, a podcast about what's changing in mental
- 0:10health and why it matters.
- 0:12I'm your host, Rachel Harrison, inviting you into honest conversations with
- 0:16people from all perspectives in the field, clinicians, tech founders,
- 0:20investors, insurance companies, and all the folks in between.
- 0:24Let's explore what's working, what's not, and what's next.
- 0:32Welcome, welcome back, everyone, to the Mental Health Evolution podcast, where
- 0:39we are talking about how the landscape of mental health is quickly
- 0:43evolving in our industry.
- 0:45Today we are joined by Sue Abderholden, the retired executive director of
- 0:51NAMI, which stands for the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Minnesota.
- 0:57Sue spent more than two decades leading NAMI Minnesota and working at
- 1:01the intersection of mental health advocacy, policy, and systems design.
- 1:06Over the course of her career, she witnessed enormous changes in how
- 1:10mental health is understood, funded, and delivered from a time when systems
- 1:15were far more fragmented and underdeveloped to where we are today.
- 1:19We became interested in inviting Sue on the podcast after reading an
- 1:23article she recently wrote for the Minnesota Reformer, where she laid out
- 1:27a set of extremely informed and specific recommendations for continuing to
- 1:32build a stronger, more functional mental health care system in the United
- 1:36States.
- 1:37And the tone of the piece was really helpful in terms of
- 1:41looking at the mental health system as what is still being built
- 1:46rather than broken.
- 1:48So we're going to dig into that and highlight some of those
- 1:51things as we talk to Sue.
- 1:52But a couple of articles that we want to highlight first.
- 1:56First is the article by our guest, which is called, Here's How
- 2:00to Move Forward on a Stronger Functioning Mental Health Care System on
- 2:04the Minnesota Reformer.
- 2:05And we're going to dig into Sue's six points, maybe not getting
- 2:09to all of them in this podcast, but we're going to cover
- 2:12what we can.
- 2:13And then a few supporting articles that we have.
- 2:17The first is called The Landscape of School-Based Mental Health Services.
- 2:21And this KFF article examines how school-based and school-linked mental
- 2:26health programs reduce barriers to care.
- 2:29They highlight gaps in follow-up and explain why early identification and
- 2:33treatment are critical, highlighting one of Sue's main points.
- 2:39Another article that highlights another point that Sue is going to talk
- 2:42to us about is Trends in State Strategies to Improve the Behavioral
- 2:47Health Workforce.
- 2:48And this analysis reviews how states are addressing workforce shortages through
- 2:53loan forgiveness, supervision supports, and diversity-focused initiatives while
- 2:58expanding roles for peers and family peer specialists.
- 3:02So this article is helpful to kind of get a good look
- 3:05at that workforce and kind of where we are currently with that.
- 3:09The next article I want to highlight is called Mental Health Parity
- 3:13and Medicaid Implementation for State Agencies.
- 3:17And Milliman explores how Medicaid payment rates and parity enforcement affects
- 3:22access to care, sustainability of providers, and the ability to expand
- 3:26services.
- 3:28Again, kind of highlighting parity is one of Sue's points.
- 3:32And then lastly, I want to highlight an article called National Guidelines
- 3:36for a Behavioral Health Coordinated Crisis System.
- 3:39And this is SAMHSA's 2025 guideline of how to lay out mobile
- 3:43crisis teams, 988 call centers, emergency departments, and community services,
- 3:49and how potentially those systems can work together, which was another good
- 3:55point from Sue's article.
- 3:57So hopefully that gives you kind of a basis for where we're
- 4:00about to talk today.
- 4:02All of those articles and links can be found in the show
- 4:05notes if you're like, ooh, what was that?
- 4:08And I want to dive in a little bit deeper.
- 4:10We have got that for you.
- 4:12So turning to our guest now, welcome, Sue.
- 4:16Thank you so much for being here and for joining us today.
- 4:19Thanks for inviting me, Rachel.
- 4:21Of course.
- 4:22Let's dig into your article.
- 4:24To start with, you said something in that article that really stood
- 4:29out to me.
- 4:30You said specifically that the mental health system isn't broken.
- 4:33It's still being built.
- 4:35I would love to dig into that a little bit more.
- 4:39I know that personally, I have said those words about it being
- 4:43broken.
- 4:44And I know many people that have, and sometimes access to care
- 4:48is difficult or challenging in different settings.
- 4:51And that sometimes leads to that statement.
- 4:53But I'd love to hear more about what you've seen and what
- 4:57you mean by that statement.
- 4:59You know, about a decade ago, because I used to call it
- 5:01broken all the time too, I was really kind of thinking about
- 5:04it.
- 5:05And I thought, well, what did we have that broke?
- 5:08And we have the state institutions, right?
- 5:11That is not a system.
- 5:13And you know, and let's be honest, in a lot of the
- 5:15institutions, they closed because of the poor care that was being provided.
- 5:18They closed because President Kennedy thought people belonged in their home
- 5:22communities, you know, with, you know, the correct supports and helping
- 5:26families and all of that.
- 5:27And so when I thought about it, I thought, well, that wasn't
- 5:30a system.
- 5:31So we don't have a system to break.
- 5:33And what we've been trying to do is, you know, develop, you
- 5:37know, frankly, a, you know, robust, coordinated system, we have found out
- 5:41what works and doesn't work.
- 5:42And you know, we're not there yet.
- 5:44And so and I also think in working with families, it also,
- 5:48I think it's more hopeful to say that we're building something than
- 5:51we're fixing something.
- 5:53Yeah.
- 5:54So if I can rewind a little bit, how did you get
- 5:58involved with mental health and with NAMI in particular?
- 6:02Well, I've worked on, you know, disability issues my whole life.
- 6:05So I was at AHRQ in Minnesota for a decade.
- 6:09I actually ran constituent, co-ran constituent services for Senator Wellstone,
- 6:13worked at one of the parent training and information centers on special
- 6:16education, and then came to NAMI a little over 24 years ago.
- 6:21I have family members, but also during grad school, I worked at
- 6:25what was then a community facility of about 140 some beds for
- 6:31people who had a serious mental illness.
- 6:33And it was still better than the institutions at the time.
- 6:35But I did that.
- 6:37And I had also worked in a group home for children with
- 6:42multiple disabilities.
- 6:43And at the time, the only alternative was the state institutions for
- 6:47those children.
- 6:47And I actually saw how hard it was for families not to
- 6:51be able to care for their children at home.
- 6:53Also, for over a decade, I did respite care for children with
- 6:57disabilities and mental illnesses, their families.
- 6:59And so I've kind of, you know, had my finger in it,
- 7:03if you will.
- 7:03And then I also have family members.
- 7:05So I've kind of seen it on both the macro and the
- 7:08micro level.
- 7:10Yeah.
- 7:10Yeah, that's a great perspective.
- 7:12So when you think back to what the mental health system looked
- 7:15like when you started this work 24 years ago, what are some
- 7:19of the most meaningful changes that you have seen?
- 7:21So probably the biggest one was there had been a huge task
- 7:26force called the Mental Health Action Group, and they developed a list
- 7:30of model and called it the model benefit set.
- 7:33And we said, these are the things that Medicaid for sure should
- 7:37pay for and that health plans in the future should pay for.
- 7:40And up until that time, it was really based on grants or
- 7:44what money the counties were willing to put in.
- 7:46So if you needed an assertive community treatment team and there were
- 7:49no more spots open, that was it.
- 7:51If you needed in-home supports and the county ran out of
- 7:54money, you didn't get it.
- 7:56And so all of those things were moved to Medicaid, a whole
- 7:59range of services.
- 8:01And, you know, there was some people who said, well, you're medicalizing
- 8:03mental health.
- 8:04And I'm like, well, we're assuring payment for treatment that people need
- 8:08and for community supports that people need.
- 8:10And so I think that was actually one of the biggest changes
- 8:13that has been made over the years.
- 8:17I think the other thing that I've seen is some really important
- 8:20programs developed.
- 8:22I would say when we think about children, making sure that we
- 8:25were the first state in the country to make sure that teachers
- 8:28had continuing education on the early warning signs of mental illness in
- 8:32children, you know, with half of all mental illnesses emerging by the
- 8:35age of 14.
- 8:36I'm like, we've got to focus on kids if we want to
- 8:39really look at even secondary prevention, right, preventing these illnesses
- 8:43from becoming disabling.
- 8:45I think that is really tertiary prevention.
- 8:47I think that's really important.
- 8:49So making sure that teachers understood what they were seeing were actually
- 8:52symptoms and not behaviors and then creating our schooling to mental health
- 8:56program, which I like more than schools actually delivering the services
- 9:01themselves.
- 9:02What we heard from families is they really wanted a firewall between
- 9:05the education records and the mental health records.
- 9:08And so the grant money actually went to community mental health providers
- 9:11who then co-located in the school so they could see the
- 9:14child in their own milieu.
- 9:15They could work with the teachers and things like that, but they
- 9:19could also bill both Medicaid and private insurance.
- 9:22And then the grant money was used for children who were uninsured
- 9:26or underinsured.
- 9:27So maybe the families had a large deductible and also to pay
- 9:31for things that you can't pay for under insurance.
- 9:33And it is extremely popular program in Minnesota.
- 9:37It grows nearly every year.
- 9:39It's in about 65 percent of actual school buildings and over 80
- 9:43percent of school districts.
- 9:46And again, I think the difference from a school providing it is
- 9:49having, again, that firewall.
- 9:51But also when school is out, those providers are still there.
- 9:55The child changes schools, the providers are still there.
- 9:57And so that I think that continuity of care is important.
- 10:01And also it is not tied to special education.
- 10:04And so that is another important factor, because a lot of kids
- 10:07with a mental illness are not in special education.
- 10:10They might need a 504 plan, but they're not necessarily in special
- 10:13ed.
- 10:14So I think, you know, those on the kids side, those were
- 10:16two important things.
- 10:17I think another thing was really looking at the first episode of
- 10:21psychosis programs.
- 10:22So we didn't just rely on the federal block grant, you know,
- 10:2610 percent of the federal mental health block grant going to that,
- 10:29but also put a lot of state money in.
- 10:31I would say not enough.
- 10:32And we aren't there yet, and especially with Minnesota legalizing cannabis.
- 10:36But again, it is such an effective program in preventing, you know,
- 10:41what is a very serious mental illness from becoming disabling.
- 10:43And the young people that I've met who have been through the
- 10:46program, I mean, it's just amazing in terms of their recovery and
- 10:51their re-involvement with their community.
- 10:53So I think those were some really important things.
- 10:57You know, there was, of course, work on workforce so that we
- 11:00had enough people to do the work that needed to be done.
- 11:02You know, housing, employment, all of those things.
- 11:05And of course, criminal justice things, too.
- 11:07And I think an important thing in criminal justice is that every
- 11:10person coming into a jail gets screened for mental health so that
- 11:14they know up front whether someone is struggling or not.
- 11:19Yeah, those are pretty significant things.
- 11:22So I want to dive into this early intervention piece.
- 11:26That's one of the I think that's your first bullet point as
- 11:30far as what we need to continue to build.
- 11:33And I love this idea that if we are catching anything early,
- 11:37it's going to be that much better in terms of effectiveness of
- 11:41treatment.
- 11:41We're not letting symptoms get out of control.
- 11:44We're not having all of the additional things that fall apart in
- 11:47somebody's lives when symptoms get out of control.
- 11:50I love this idea of looking at you and also this idea
- 11:54about maybe even having a yearly type of screening, like a physical,
- 11:59like a mental health assessment for young people.
- 12:03So in an ideal world, what would you envision that this would
- 12:06look like?
- 12:08What we've seen some, you know, clinics do is they routinely do
- 12:13the PHQ-9, the depression screening for any time, any time any
- 12:17adult goes into the clinic.
- 12:19And I think that's great.
- 12:20But young people don't often go to clinics.
- 12:23And so I think we have to find other ways to do
- 12:25that.
- 12:25They're generally healthy.
- 12:26And so I think there's a couple of things.
- 12:29I think some of the online screenings are helpful for teens and
- 12:32young adults.
- 12:33We've seen colleges certainly push for having mental health services on campus,
- 12:39for raising awareness.
- 12:40And I would say that young people today, you know, under 40,
- 12:43really are much more aware about mental health than before.
- 12:46I think making sure that youth, as they go through, you know,
- 12:50they're doing a physical exam for sports or just the well-child
- 12:54visits that, you know, pediatricians and others are really checking in on
- 12:58those kinds of issues.
- 13:00And we've seen some of that happen.
- 13:02What doesn't happen is when someone screens positive.
- 13:05And that's where I think some of the disconnect is, like, are
- 13:09they getting referred to a mental health professional?
- 13:11Do they know how, frankly, to navigate their health care system to
- 13:15find out who is even in network?
- 13:18Do they know what to expect?
- 13:19How long do they have to wait?
- 13:21And we have seen some primary care clinics actually have a mental
- 13:25health professional on site so that it makes it very easy to
- 13:29kind of make that first assessment.
- 13:31But that's where I see us kind of falling down.
- 13:34People, again, I think most people have said, yeah, in the last
- 13:37couple of years, when I've gone to the doctor, they've asked me
- 13:39those questions about, have you been feeling sad and things like that?
- 13:43But what happens when you say you are?
- 13:45And that, I think, is a huge problem.
- 13:47The other thing, and, you know, some schools were kind of doing
- 13:50it and then that kind of fell off because some parents didn't
- 13:53want that to be done.
- 13:55And that became kind of a mess.
- 13:56But I do think that kids generally have to go see a
- 14:00pediatrician more frequently than, say, a young adult.
- 14:03And so that is another, I think, opportunity to really check in
- 14:07on how that child is doing.
- 14:09Yeah.
- 14:09Yeah.
- 14:10Yeah.
- 14:10And it sounds like maybe even some education to help folks understand
- 14:15the purpose behind it.
- 14:16Yes.
- 14:17And it doesn't necessarily mean someone's going to be given a pill.
- 14:20Right.
- 14:21You know, as we all know, just having a pill does not,
- 14:24you know, necessarily alleviate symptoms.
- 14:26There's also some other work that has to go on, whether it's
- 14:29therapy, nutrition, I mean, you know, all those kinds of things.
- 14:32So people shouldn't be afraid, oh, they're just going to give me
- 14:34pills.
- 14:35They should really think more deeply, frankly, about that.
- 14:38Yeah.
- 14:39Yeah, I definitely agree.
- 14:40So let's transition to another point that you made, which is workforce
- 14:44development.
- 14:45And you've kind of even talked about this in where you've talked
- 14:48about some of the areas that we've already grown.
- 14:51But the importance of building a robust and diverse mental health workforce,
- 14:55where are you seeing the biggest gaps right now?
- 14:58And what kind of investments do you think would make the biggest
- 15:01difference?
- 15:02So we generally have a white workforce.
- 15:04And of course, our country is not made up of just white
- 15:07people.
- 15:08And I think it is important that we create a diverse workforce
- 15:11and diversity on all sorts of things.
- 15:13You know, I think you can talk to a lot of women
- 15:15and they want their OBGYN to be a woman, right, because they're
- 15:19going to feel more comfortable.
- 15:20And so I think the same is true if you're African-American,
- 15:24if you're Somali, if you're Hmong, you might want to see someone
- 15:27who understands your culture, who understands racism, you know, to explain it
- 15:31to them.
- 15:31And I think that's really important.
- 15:33Some of the things that we need to do, frankly, to make
- 15:36that happen is we know loan forgiveness programs are extremely effective and
- 15:41that helps, especially if you're not coming into and going into graduate
- 15:44school with much money.
- 15:46We also know that a lot of mental health professionals, particularly social
- 15:49workers, right, have to pay for their supervision.
- 15:52So on top of your student loans, now you have to pay
- 15:55for the supervision that's required in order to become licensed.
- 15:58And so we had a small program that actually paid for the
- 16:01supervision, including in culturally specific clinics to make it easier,
- 16:06frankly, for people to be able to do their internships there.
- 16:09The other thing we know is that the tests are not necessarily
- 16:12culturally appropriate.
- 16:15And so we've seen the social work board, actually, you know, on
- 16:19the national level testing board say, yeah, we looked at who doesn't
- 16:21pass and it's people of color and men.
- 16:24So the test is really kind of normed to white women.
- 16:27And so they said the test doesn't necessarily tell us whether that
- 16:31is going to be a good social worker or not.
- 16:33So I think finding some alternative pathways is also important.
- 16:37The other thing that we did, which I thought was frankly kind
- 16:40of novel, is we did, I would call it a non-scientific
- 16:43survey.
- 16:43We found our health department found that we literally had thousands of
- 16:47people who graduated and didn't go on and become licensed.
- 16:50So we sent out a survey, again, non-scientific, but people responded.
- 16:54And what we heard is that people said, well, especially people from
- 16:58communities of color, they said, I can't find a supervisor from my
- 17:02race or culture.
- 17:03And then I'm having a difficult time getting through that supervision period.
- 17:06So what we did is actually paid BIPOC mental health professionals to
- 17:10become supervisors and just paid for them to do that.
- 17:14And it multiplied.
- 17:15I mean, we had over 200 people just in the first year
- 17:19actually go through that program.
- 17:20And so I think there are ways that are not necessarily, you
- 17:23know, complicated and not necessarily require a whole lot of money to
- 17:27create a more culturally diverse workforce.
- 17:30The last thing I would say is we've got to start paying
- 17:32people.
- 17:33You know, we know that a clinical social worker, I mean, in
- 17:36terms of those, you know, the graduate school, the hours of supervision
- 17:38makes less than a dental assistant.
- 17:42Now I want my teeth cleaned well, and there's, you know, I
- 17:44don't want to put down that profession at all, but the social
- 17:47workers, right, they're required to have a lot more education and training
- 17:52and they should be paid for that.
- 17:54Yeah, I think the question is, and then this leads into your
- 17:56next point, though, is where does that funding and parity come from?
- 18:00Right.
- 18:01That's the challenge I know firsthand as an organization is that when
- 18:06I am limited in what I receive for a session, I can
- 18:10only pay people so much.
- 18:12Right.
- 18:12I joke all the time that I would love and it's a
- 18:15joke, but not really.
- 18:16I would, I think $200 an hour would be a fair wage
- 18:20for anyone doing intensive mental health treatment with clients.
- 18:24Right.
- 18:24That that would be a fair wage, but that's not anywhere near
- 18:28the realistic place that is even doable with insurance and certainly Medicaid
- 18:33and things like that.
- 18:34So I'm curious what some of your ideas are in regard to
- 18:39that.
- 18:40I love how you said that insurance or Medicaid should reimburse the
- 18:44true cost of mental health care.
- 18:48Yeah, that I think is the challenge everybody can see in the
- 18:52system as it exists right now.
- 18:54You know, I think there's a couple of things.
- 18:55One is, let's be somewhat honest, you know, a lot of mental
- 18:59health professionals are women.
- 19:00And when it's a women dominated profession, you generally get paid less.
- 19:05And so, you know, let's just put that out there.
- 19:08And I think also with the mental health system, because so much
- 19:12of it is reimbursed under Medicaid rather than private insurance, that, you
- 19:16know, you're already getting much lower rates because of that.
- 19:19And, you know, in some health care programs, right, you can balance
- 19:22things out from something that isn't paid very much, but you're getting
- 19:25a lot of private insurance and so that you can balance it
- 19:28out.
- 19:28We can't do that in mental health because so many people have
- 19:31to rely on Medicaid and especially young adults who have, you know,
- 19:34emerging serious mental illnesses.
- 19:36They have to depend on Medicaid.
- 19:38And so I think, you know, one, obviously pushing for higher rates
- 19:41under Medicaid is important, but I also think pushing the what I
- 19:45call kind of the third pillar of mental health parity, the non
- 19:48-quantitative treatment limits, you know, in there is if you can't get
- 19:52enough people in your network, then you need to pay them more.
- 19:56And we know even psychiatrists often get paid a lot less than
- 19:59other types of physicians.
- 20:01And a lot of them are only taking private insurance now or
- 20:04I'm sorry, a lot of them are only taking cash only practices.
- 20:08And so really, we should be, frankly, pushing back on those health
- 20:13plans saying, no, you have to raise the rates because you don't
- 20:16have enough people in network to meet the need.
- 20:19And that is the one part of parity that frankly does not
- 20:22get enforced and is much harder to enforce because it's not as
- 20:26clear, you know, saying that you can't have arbitrary treatment limits, you
- 20:29can't have different out-of-pocket costs.
- 20:30Those are pretty easy to measure.
- 20:32These non-quantitative treatment limits are much harder.
- 20:34And that actually comes in.
- 20:36I would just add the non-quantitative treatment limits also comes in
- 20:40when we talk about paying for first episode of psychosis programs.
- 20:44How do health plans pay for new cancer treatments?
- 20:47What's their decision making process?
- 20:49And here we have a program that clearly is effective, not just
- 20:53in this country, but around the world.
- 20:54Right.
- 20:55We know it's effective.
- 20:56Then why isn't private insurance paying for it?
- 20:59What is their process for adding new treatments?
- 21:01And frankly, they just don't add new treatments for mental health.
- 21:04They just don't.
- 21:05We had a situation in Minnesota where we finally developed psychiatric
- 21:10residential treatment facilities, which, of course, for kids are the only
- 21:14program that doesn't have to worry about the IMD or the Institute
- 21:19for Mental Disease Exclusion.
- 21:20So they can be more than 16 beds and still get Medicaid.
- 21:24So we added them to our system in Minnesota.
- 21:26And the private health plans refuse to pay, even though under state
- 21:29law they're required to pay for hospitalization and residential treatment.
- 21:32They said, this isn't any of those.
- 21:35And we're like, well, it's one of the two.
- 21:36And we had to actually pass a law to require them to
- 21:39cover it, which is absurd.
- 21:41Oh, yeah.
- 21:43Yeah.
- 21:43And that that kind of leads into the last topic I wanted
- 21:48to jump in with you, which was about the crisis, mental health
- 21:53crisis.
- 21:54And you talked about how people can end up in jails or
- 21:57emergency rooms and looking at what brought them there.
- 22:00But even more specifically, how to build a unified mental health crisis
- 22:05system.
- 22:06So I would love to hear some of your ideas on that.
- 22:09You know, often I get, you know, sheriffs and others, you know,
- 22:13saying, why are all these people with mental illness in the jails?
- 22:15And I just say, well, who brought them there?
- 22:17You know, did police actually have to bring them to the jail?
- 22:20And I think that's a huge thing when we think about crisis
- 22:23services.
- 22:24You know, I mean, the feds say you've got to have someone,
- 22:26you know, someone to contact, someone to respond and a place to
- 22:29bring people.
- 22:29Great.
- 22:30But I think we've made it complicated.
- 22:32And in Minnesota, we've made it even more complicated.
- 22:35So, you know, certainly 9-8-8 is wonderful.
- 22:38And we have to keep getting the word out about 9-8
- 22:40-8 and how effective it can be.
- 22:42But second of all, we have a law in Minnesota that says
- 22:45if you call 9-1-1 and you need a crisis team,
- 22:47you're supposed to get referred to them.
- 22:49It's called Travis's Law.
- 22:50It was a young man who was killed by police in a
- 22:53mental health crisis.
- 22:53So you're automatically supposed to happen.
- 22:55But what we've seen is despite the fact that we have had
- 22:58a statewide mobile mental health crisis system for almost 20 years, maybe
- 23:04even a little bit more than 20 years, covering every single area
- 23:08of Minnesota, what we've seen is police departments deciding that they want
- 23:13to do their own.
- 23:14So instead of collaborating with that county crisis team, they want to
- 23:17create their own team.
- 23:18And we actually have state standards for our crisis teams.
- 23:21So now I think we've made it like, so who goes out?
- 23:25What is their role versus the county team?
- 23:28And so I think we're making it really confusing for people.
- 23:31And we have to remember, if you're an employee of a police
- 23:35department, you don't have to follow HIPAA, but our mobile crisis teams
- 23:39do.
- 23:40And so, you know, again, that adds a whole lot of things.
- 23:43But what what really bugged me, I'm going to be honest, you
- 23:46know, I take well, when I worked for NAMI, I took a
- 23:48lot of calls from families because I was usually there on the
- 23:50weekend and late.
- 23:51And so the calls came into my office and I took them.
- 23:54And, you know, they're sitting there saying, I can see my loved
- 23:57one decompensating.
- 23:58I can see the symptoms coming back.
- 24:00I don't know if they stopped taking their meds or the meds
- 24:03not working or there was some kind of trigger.
- 24:05I don't know.
- 24:06But when I call the county and I ask for help, they
- 24:08say if they're not willing to go to treatment voluntarily, you have
- 24:12to wait until they're a danger to themselves or others.
- 24:15And we just wouldn't do that for any other health care condition.
- 24:19And so the idea I came up with is called voluntary engagement.
- 24:23It's in our commitment law.
- 24:24And we finally got money two years ago and the pilot started
- 24:28in September.
- 24:29And the idea behind it is if you see someone struggling, why
- 24:33can't you send someone out then?
- 24:35Why can't you send out a peer specialist to talk to that
- 24:38person, to engage that person into treatment voluntarily?
- 24:41Because we all know getting someone to treatment voluntarily usually is better
- 24:45than having them committed.
- 24:47And I understand sometimes you have to have people committed.
- 24:50I'm not against the commitment laws.
- 24:51But what I am against is waiting until someone hits a full
- 24:54blown crisis where you need to call the crisis team or you
- 24:57need to call the police and where they or they need to
- 24:59be brought to the ER.
- 25:00Why aren't we going upstream?
- 25:02And so these pilots are supposed to track data to see if
- 25:06we can prevent a full blown crisis from appearing.
- 25:09And we did it in a very holistic way.
- 25:11So not only do they go out and talk to the person,
- 25:14but do they have health insurance?
- 25:15Do they have a prescriber?
- 25:16Do they have housing?
- 25:17Right.
- 25:18What's going on in their life?
- 25:19They can go to the families and talk about suicide prevention, means
- 25:22restriction, help them understand how to talk to someone who's hearing voices.
- 25:26So we tried to kind of create kind of a holistic way,
- 25:29not just a police officer going out and driving someone somewhere.
- 25:33And so I think that's important.
- 25:34The other thing that we've seen in Minnesota because of George Floyd's
- 25:37murder is that the legislature changed the use of force laws, deadly
- 25:43use of force laws.
- 25:44So once that changed, when police come out to actually transport someone
- 25:48to an emergent to a hospital, if that's what they need, what
- 25:51happens is that if the person is not willing to get into
- 25:54the car voluntarily, they won't transport them.
- 25:57And I keep saying there's something between killing someone and getting them
- 26:00into the car voluntarily.
- 26:02I think there's something in between there.
- 26:04And so the other thing that we tried to do is for
- 26:07quite a few years as part of our Medicaid system under non
- 26:10-emergency medical transportation, we created another type of vehicle called
- 26:15protected transport so that you could actually transport someone in crisis and
- 26:19dignity.
- 26:19So it's an unmarked car.
- 26:21Basically, it can be driven by someone who's taken mental health first
- 26:24aid, so understands de-escalation.
- 26:26And if the crisis team says, yes, they're safe to be transported
- 26:29that way, they can be transported that way, not in handcuffs, not
- 26:32on a stretcher.
- 26:33Unfortunately, we only have about three vehicles in the state of Minnesota.
- 26:36But we did last session allow our crisis teams to use their
- 26:41grant money to buy a vehicle so that they can actually be
- 26:43transporting people and not relying on police.
- 26:46The last thing I'll say in terms of where to go, which
- 26:49I think is always what people struggle with, we have not built
- 26:53central receiving centers or those 23-hour centers in Minnesota.
- 26:58Part of the reasoning behind that and for those states that have
- 27:01done that, I understand.
- 27:03Do you think it's great?
- 27:04That's great.
- 27:04But here, what we said is when someone is in crisis, health
- 27:09care, mental health care, whatever it is, right, we just go to
- 27:12the emergency room.
- 27:13We go there.
- 27:14We don't know usually about some of their place that only takes
- 27:17people with mental illnesses.
- 27:18And if you're building it so that only police can take them
- 27:21there, then we've created a weird disincentive as well.
- 27:24We want to avoid, frankly, contact with police whenever we can.
- 27:27And so we've pushed and said for psychiatric emergency rooms within the
- 27:31emergency department so that they aren't, you know, in a room that's
- 27:35loud and, you know, all of that kind of stuff.
- 27:37But they can be at a quieter part that's actually staffed with
- 27:41mental health practitioners and professionals.
- 27:43And then attached to that would be crisis homes.
- 27:46So we have a lot of crisis beds in our residential facilities.
- 27:50Our residential facilities are generally 16 beds so that they can get
- 27:53Medicaid.
- 27:54We have about 60 of them across the state of Minnesota.
- 27:56So they're small.
- 27:57And in rural Minnesota, they're often even smaller than 16 beds because
- 28:01they can't fill 16 beds in, you know, northwestern Minnesota.
- 28:04And so those crisis beds are helpful because these places look like
- 28:08homes.
- 28:09They don't look like a hospital or anything like that.
- 28:12And so people can go there and, you know, frankly, sleep, recharge
- 28:16their batteries, kind of address what's going on and, you know, be
- 28:20well enough to leave within a few days.
- 28:22And I think that's important, too.
- 28:24Not everyone needs long term hospitalization, long term residential treatment.
- 28:29For a lot of people, they just need that kind of break.
- 28:31But it's actually staffed by mental health professionals and peers and
- 28:36practitioners to really help that person through, you know, get through their
- 28:40crisis.
- 28:40Yeah, yeah.
- 28:42That's a lot to take in.
- 28:44But yeah, you know, you've done a lot of that's a lot
- 28:47of great information to kind of synthesize about ideas of where to
- 28:52go.
- 28:53And I do think as our industry is changing a lot right
- 28:57now, there is an opportunity to think about what else is needed.
- 29:01How do we creatively address some of these issues that we're seeing?
- 29:05And so I love how clearly your perspective kind of puts everything
- 29:09together.
- 29:09I want to just ask you one last question.
- 29:12And if listeners could take one message away from this conversation, whether
- 29:17it be someone seeking care or a provider or an organization, what
- 29:23would you hope to have people take away from this?
- 29:26That you can create change.
- 29:28I think too often people are like, well, there's nothing I can
- 29:31do.
- 29:32And I teach a class for social workers on health and mental
- 29:35health policy at the University of Minnesota.
- 29:37And what I want them to take away from that is when
- 29:40they're providing treatment or supporting someone, when they're hearing from a
- 29:44family member who said, this doesn't exist, what can I do?
- 29:47Not to just say, I don't know, but to say, let's look
- 29:50at changing that.
- 29:52Let's look into it.
- 29:53Is it a simple law that can change?
- 29:55Is it somebody who's just not doing their job?
- 29:57Is it a misinterpretation?
- 29:58But too often.