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CEO Update | 48

President’s Budget Maintains Opioid Funding Levels and Cuts Behavioral Healthcare Funding In his Fiscal Year 2020 budget released this week, President Donald Trump proposed $4.8 billion—which maintains congressional funding levels—to combat the nation’s opioid crisis and proposed hundreds of millions in funding cuts to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) budget and to behavioral healthcare research. According to the president’s proposal, SAMHSA would see a $65 million cut to its total budget, while the behavioral healthcare-related institutes within the National Institutes of Health would see even more severe funding decreases with $436 million in cuts to behavioral healthcare research. For the third year in a row, the president has proposed cutting the Office of National Drug Control Policy’s by more than 95 percent and repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion. The budget proposal would also require states to choose between a per-capita cap or a block grant for their Medicaid programs. Each year, the president’s budget is important because it provides a blueprint for the president’s priorities and policy recommendations to Congress. The president’s budget is also significant because it marks the start of the legislative appropriations process. Watch HHS Secretary Alex Azar’s testimony about the Trump administration’s Fiscal Year 2020 budget here. National Survey Shows More Teens and Young Adults Experiencing Mental Health Issues A new nationwide survey found a 50-percent increase in depressive episodes for individuals between the ages of 12 and 17 between 2005 and 2017. Published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, the study examined 200,000 people aged 12–17 and 400,000 people aged 18 and older at various points between 2005 and 2017 about any psychological distress and depressive episodes they had experienced. The findings showed a slightly bigger increase—63 percent—in young adults aged 18–25 than in the younger age group. “Cultural trends contributing to an increase in mood disorders and suicidal thoughts and behaviors since the mid-2000s, including the rise of electronic communication and digital media and declines in sleep duration, may have had a larger impact on younger people, creating a cohort effect,” the study said. In its general scientific summary, the study noted that more “U.S. adolescents and young adults in the late 2010s (versus the mid-2000s) experienced psychological distress, major depression, and suicidal thoughts, and more (people) attempted suicide, and took their own lives.” SAMHSA Releases Guidance on Strategies to Promote Best Practice in Antipsychotic Prescribing for Children and Adolescents SAMHSA has released its Guidance On Strategies to Promote Best Practice in Antipsychotic Prescribing for Children and Adolescents. The new resource offers six key principles for system-level strategies, including youth and family engagement, a multi-modal approach, prescribing clinician engagement, consideration for the unique needs of special populations, coordination with other youth-serving systems, and sustainable financing mechanisms. SAMHSA Releases Principles of Community-Based Behavioral Health Services for Criminal Justice Involved Individuals SAMHSA recently released Principles of Community-Based Behavioral Health Services for Criminal Justice Involved Individuals to provide a framework for a quality, community-based behavioral health treatment system that responds to individuals with mental and substance use disorders. The guide is meant to help community-based behavioral healthcare providers in their clinical and case management practices with people who have mental and substance use disorders and are currently involved with or have been involved in the adult criminal justice system. It’s also intended for agency leaders and program developers responsible for shaping how their organizations deliver community-based services. The guide is composed of eight guiding principles, as well as frequently asked questions, resources for additional reading, and a glossary of terms for behavioral healthcare providers and criminal justice professionals. HRSA to Host Webinar on Opioid Response Program Funding Opportunity on March 27 The Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Rural Communities Opioid Response Program (RCORP) has released a funding opportunity for implementation grants. HRSA will make available about 75 awards of up to $1 million each to networks and or/consortia to enhance substance use disorder (SUD), including opioid-use disorder (OUD). HRSA will host a webinar about this opportunity on Wednesday, March 27 from 11:30 a.m. ET until 1 p.m. ET. Click here for the weblink. Separately, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services updated its opioid prescribing mapping tool. For the first time, the tool includes data for opioid prescribing in the Medicaid program. The tool also makes geographic comparisons of Medicare part D opioid prescribing rates over time for both urban and rural communities. Join Us! The 2019 NABH Annual Meeting—Behavioral Healthcare: Improving Coordination, Collaboration, Integration— kicks off on Monday, March 18. If you haven’t done so yet, please take a moment to read our updated preliminary program and visit our speakers page. Also, NABH thanks all of the companies that will serve as exhibitors or sponsors at this year’s Annual Meeting. Please take a moment to view our exhibitors and sponsors on our Annual Meeting homepage, where you can click on each organization to learn more. Also, please remember to visit with our exhibitors and sponsors during at the Mandarin Oriental Washington, DC next week. We look forward to seeing you in Washington! For questions or comments about CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond.