2023 14th Annual NUBE Conference

The COVID-19 Pandemic exacerbated existing behavioral and mental health challenges across the United States. Each state is facing challenges, unique to the populations and communities of each state. Historically, in the 1980s during the time of deinstitutionalization, Michigan, like other states, dramatically decreased the number of state forensic hospital beds. Today, an additional set of state forensic beds have been taken offline due to workforce shortages. This has created a significant backlog in patients that are waiting for critical inpatient psychiatric care. The Michigan Health and Hospital Association (MHA) secured funding and designed a competitive grant process for hospitals and health systems to add capacity statewide for pediatric inpatient psychiatric services through a funding amount of $50 million dollars. This presentation will highlight the proposals that were received and awarded, and will provide an overview of what innovative programs were implemented with the funding. Additionally, the MHA launched a state-wide survey to understand from a quantitative perspective the number of patients that are waiting in emergency departments (ED) with inpatient psychiatric needs, or public behavioral health services to gain a better understanding of the problem. This data helps identify the existing gaps in capacity, and the need for increased services and supports to address the need. This presentation will cover the longitudinal data that's been collected, and will be broken down by pediatric, adult, and geriatric cases. Lastly, we know that addressing such systemic challenges require collaborations and partnerships with various partners. This presentation will detail the various policy and legislative efforts that the MHA has launched to improve the behavioral health landscape across the state. Presenters will detail efforts to secure reimbursement for peer recovery coaches/specialists, policies to implement Pediatric Residential Treatment Facilities (PRTFs), and legislation to expand treatment for opioid use disorder through Medication Assisted Treatment in the emergency department, and other substance use disorder legislation to make it easier to get treatment for addiction and dependencies.