Integrated Health Workgroup Gets Underway

The first meeting of the Integration of Health and Behavioral Health Workgroup created by HB 2196 was held on November 12, 2009. I am the representative for TPA. There are 17 public members, 2 aides to the legislators who sponsored the bill, and 5 agency representatives from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) and its related agencies. Among the members are representatives of consumer and advocacy organizations, community behavioral health organizations, representatives of behavioral health professional organizations and experts in the field of integrating health and behavioral health. There are 3 other psychologists among the members, 1 of whom is a TPA member (Dr. Jeffrey Wherry from Texas Tech). At the meeting, we reviewed our charge which is “to recommend best practices in policy, training and service delivery to promote the integration of health and behavioral health services in this state.” In addition, we had presentations from the Hogg Foundation on Mental Health and from a representative of the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, discussed establishing subcommittees, and reviewed scheduling of meetings. We will be completing our work in late May or early June so that the recommendations can be presented to HHSC which must then provide its report and recommendations to the legislature by August 1, 2010. We have all now signed up for our subcommittee assignments, and we all got our first choices. My assignment is on the Policy Subcommittee. The other psychologists are on the Service Delivery Subcommittee (1) and the Training and Public Education Subcommittee (2). I will provide additional reports as the work progresses.