We want to hear from you! Human services leaders across the country are working to include the expertise of individuals with lived experience. In partnership with the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA), we’re seeking examples of such work to spotlight how others are engaging in efforts that help address structural racism, advance equity, diversity, and inclusion, and authentically center community to drive systems change. Learn more and submit your stories here.

We kindly request you submit your responses no later than Friday, March 31st. 

If you have questions or need further details, please contact Trinka Landry-Bourne or Michon Hicks. 

On Feb. 15, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) voluntarily checked himself in to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to receive treatment for clinical depression, setting off a heated national debate about self-care and leadership. While on the campaign trail last year, Fetterman suffered a stroke which impacted his cognitive abilities and reportedly led to his current bout of depression. By seeking care, Fetterman demonstrates solidarity with millions of people in this country suffering from depression. By publicly announcing his decision, he also helps to eliminate the stigma behind seeking mental health care, particularly in the workplace. He is part of a growing line of prominent figures, like Simone Biles and Jason Kander, who have modeled a new approach to mental health challenges.

The social sector, like other sectors, is making progress toward breaking down the stigma around mental health. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when instances of suicide ideation, addiction, and anxiety began to increase rapidly, more organizations and leaders have begun to engage openly with mental health challenges in the workforce. One helpful resource is Mental Health First Aid at Work, a training program that gives participants the tools to support co-workers with mental health or substance use issues. Another resource, Up to Me from WISE, guides individuals through whether and how to safely disclose their mental illness to others, if they so choose.

Social Current offers workforce resilience consulting to help social sector leaders build a workplace culture based on equity, connection, and psychological safety.

President Biden Signs New Equity Executive Order

On Feb. 16, President Biden signed an executive order to support racial equity and strengthen the federal government’s efforts to combat systemic racism and poverty. This builds upon another executive order he signed on the first day of his presidency which advanced an all-of-government approach to eliminating systemic inequities of all kinds. The new executive order requires federal agencies to create annual equity action plans that steer policies and programs toward underserved communities. Per the order, as agencies develop their plans, they must actively and frequently engage with local communities and organizations. Further, agency equity teams must be created in each agency, with high-ranking leaders implementing equity plans while working across agencies to foster collaboration and accountability. Finally, the executive order requires a more comprehensive, detailed collection and analysis of demographic data.

2021 Child Abuse and Neglect Report Released

The Children’s Bureau within the Department of Health and Human Services released the latest version of its annual series, “Child Maltreatment 2021.” Drawn from data provided by states to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS), the series details the nature and extent of child abuse and neglect cases across the country each year. The 2021 report found Child Protective Services responded to referrals of over three million children through investigation or other means. In 2021, an estimated six hundred thousand children were victims of maltreatment (the lowest number in the last five years). Of those children, 76 percent were neglected, 16 percent physically abused, 10.1 percent sexually abused, and 0.2 percent sex trafficked. Tragically, 1,820 children died from abuse and neglect. 67 percent of reporters were professionals, including education, medical, legal, and law enforcement personnel, 17.1 percent were nonprofessionals (friends, neighbors, and relatives), and 16 percent were unclassified, including anonymous and unknown sources.

Announcement of New Emergency Food Assistance Funding

As part of a $1 billion investment in the country’s emergency food system, the U.S. Department of Agriculture set aside $100 million for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) Reach and Resiliency grant initiative. $60 million in round-two grant funding is available to pursue the program’s goal of extending TEFAP’s impact to remote, rural, tribal, and low-income areas currently neglected by the program. In round one, grantee states received $40 million. They worked with food banks on various activities, including studies and surveys, cultural competency training, mobile food bank infrastructure, equipment and technology purchases, and proactive outreach to tribal areas.

Social Current, APHSA Partner to Co-Create New Framework for Community-Based and Public Sector Human Services Leaders

The American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) and Social Current have a long history of collaboration. With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the two organizations will continue partnering to develop a new leadership framework for health and human services leaders to work together across system boundaries.

Read more in this article by APHSA President and CEO Tracy Wareing Evans and Social Current President and CEO Jody Levison-Johnson from the latest edition of Policy & Practice.

Subscribe to the Policy and Advocacy Radar to receive our biweekly policy roundup, which includes commentary on issues in Social Current’s federal policy agenda, opportunities to take action, and curated news and opportunities.

The Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime, and Social Current are offering free training and technical assistance to law enforcement agencies looking to improve workforce retention and officer well-being. This 18-month initiative has 12 spots for law enforcement agencies to join. All types of agencies are welcome, including but not limited to:

During this initiative, agencies will learn and grow together. Social Current’s technical assistance team will introduce hope-centered and trauma-informed frameworks and principles related to equity, diversity, and inclusion that will help the agencies better address trauma and adversity to improve their workforce.

View this detailed letter about the initiative and register for our virtual open house on March 14 or March 20 from Noon-1 p.m. PT.

LEARN MORE

Direct any questions to Romero Davis, senior program manager at Social Current.

Last Tuesday, President Biden delivered his State of the Union address, which outlined his policy priorities for the first two years of his term. In one of the most animated environments for a State of the Union speech in recent decades, which included much back-and-forth between the president and the audience, Biden celebrated the legislative achievements of the past two years. He lauded the bipartisan infrastructure bill, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act; all of which, according to the president, advance his goal of creating blue-collar jobs and a manufacturing revival in the U.S.

With his constant refrain of “finish the job,” President Biden called on Congress to help him pass additional legislation from his plans that hadn’t yet been passed. He reiterated his commitment to strengthening the care economy with investments in paid family and medical leave as well as community-based care for people with disabilities and the elderly. Biden also spoke about the importance of universal pre-K, expanded child care supports, and reinstating the monthly installments of the child tax credit. In one of the more emotional moments of the address, he introduced the parents of Tyre Nichols, who died after police brutally beat him, and pleaded with Congress to pass bipartisan policing reform. Social Current will continue to monitor Congress’s progress on these issues and others as the 118th Congress moves forward.

New National Early Care and Education Workforce Center

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the creation of the new National Early Care and Education Workforce Center. The Center’s activities will focus on creating a robust early care and education workforce with formal paths for attaining credentials and degrees. They will also identify strategies for increased compensation and benefits for the workforce. After a competitive process, Child Trends – in concert with the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, BUILD Initiative, ZERO TO THREE, University of Massachusetts-Boston, and the University of Delaware – will run the center. With a starting budget of $30 million, the center will provide research and technical assistance to states, communities, territories, and Tribal Nations to help them support a sector hit hard by the pandemic. According to HHS, the child care sector lost nearly 80,000 jobs, about 7.5 percent of its workforce, since 2020. Last month, HHS also announced $300 million in preschool development grants, birth through five, to 42 states.

Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program Gets Increase in Funding

The Food and Nutrition Service within the U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded $50 million in grants to 47 states and tribes to enhance and grow the Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program, which helps low-income seniors buy locally grown fruits, vegetables, honey, and herbs at farmers’ markets, stands, and community agriculture programs. These new grants will expand the program into new geographic areas, increase the benefit level to $50, and benefit 250,000 more seniors. The increase in funding was implemented in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. It will also support the program’s modernization by transitioning from a coupon-based system to an electronic benefits system. The grants will also support outreach to vulnerable populations through coordination with community-based organizations.

Social Determinants of Health Investments Highlighted in HHS Report

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released “Snapshot: How HHS is Building a Healthier America,” a report covering all areas where the agency had an impact in 2022, including fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, improving mental and behavioral health care, advancing equity, and supporting the public health workforce. One crucial section highlights investment in the social determinants of health carried out by various sub-agencies. For instance, the Administration for Children and Families spent $4.5 billion in heating and cooling assistance to states, helping low-income families pay utility bills as well as choose low-cost home energy repairs. The Administration for Community Living created the Community Care Hub National Learning Community, which will enhance the ability of community-based organizations to partner with health care organizations to tackle social and public health needs. The Center for Disease Control financially supported the work of community health workers in 68 communities, contributing over 14,000 referrals for transportation, food, and housing services.

Social Current, APHSA Partner to Co-Create New Framework for Community-Based and Public Sector Human Services Leaders

The American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) and Social Current have a long history of collaboration. With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the two organizations will continue partnering to develop a new leadership framework for health and human services leaders to work together across system boundaries.

Read more in this article by APHSA President and CEO Tracy Wareing Evans and Social Current President and CEO Jody Levison-Johnson from the latest edition of Policy & Practice.

Subscribe to the Policy and Advocacy Radar to receive our biweekly policy roundup, which includes commentary on issues in Social Current’s federal policy agenda, opportunities to take action, and curated news and opportunities.

HARTFORD, CT – Saint Francis Hospital, a member of Trinity Health Of New England, today released their final evaluation report for the Child Safety Forward initiative funded by the Department of Justice (DOJ). Child Safety Forward is a multi-year demonstration initiative, launched in October 2019 by the DOJ’s Office for Victims of Crime, that engaged five sites across the United States in research, planning and implementation around strategies aimed at reducing child injury and fatality from abuse and neglect.

“While the rate of child maltreatment for Connecticut is comparable to that observed nationally, the rate for Hartford and other urban areas in our state is higher than that of other areas across the state or nationally,” noted Regina Dyton, program manager for Saint Francis Hospital and project director for Child Safety Forward in Hartford. “This data led our Hartford site to recognize the importance and impact of parent leaders, many of whom were not familiar with this data, and to focus our work on empowering community members to serve as allies and vital resources to local and state agencies engaging in child and family well-being efforts.”

Hartford’s Child Safety Forward project brought together a multidisciplinary team of stakeholders composed of state agencies; community-based organizations; and, most importantly, parents to share data, coordinate services, facilitate community participation, and seek best practice recommendations. They recruited a Parent Engagement Workgroup drawn from parents who have experience with child and family serving-systems, the Greater Hartford Family Advocacy Center at Saint Francis Hospital, and members of Hartford Parent University, a grassroots advocacy and educational project for parents of children in Hartford Public Schools.

Some of the insights from the Parent Engagement Work Group included:

Insights from the Parent Engagement Workgroup led to the development of a comprehensive educational guide, “From Pain to Parenting,” with training guidelines and modules for parents on multiple topics related to child well-being, including unsafe sleep, domestic violence, sexual abuse and assault, mental health, firearm safety and gun violence, and disabilities.

The Child Safety Forward Hartford initiative will serve as a springboard for establishing ongoing planning and action on preventing child maltreatment fatality and near fatality. The project will transfer from Saint Francis Hospital and Trinity Health Of New England to the Institute for Community Research (ICR) as the lead agency, with Voices of Women of Color and Hartford Parent University as partners. ICR will train a group of parents to design and implement their own research and will conduct sessions to help parents understand data and advocate for data-sharing with communities. Hartford Parent University will provide ongoing training on topics identified by parents as they relate to Hartford Public Schools, especially regarding children with disabilities and children belonging to other marginalized communities. Voices of Women of Color will provide training in community organizing and advocacy and will lead the recruitment of a parent engagement group for each of Hartford’s thirteen neighborhoods.

“The work of the Child Safety Forward team in Hartford has been truly groundbreaking,” noted Amy Templeman, director of the Within our Reach team at Social Current and the head of the technical assistance team. “Their focus on parent engagement, community organizing and the purposeful shifting of power to those most affected produced tremendous insights and learnings that will help inform the field of child welfare for years to come.”

“Successfully engaging those with lived experience requires an approach that goes beyond merely giving them a seat at the table,” noted Stacy Phillips, Victim Justice Program Specialist with the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) within the U.S. Department of Justice. “The Hartford project is unique because it centers power in parents and community members and integrates the decision-making community voices with CPS, law enforcement, the courts, and other relevant agencies. By improving cooperation and communication between community members and agencies responsible for child protection, they are contributing significantly to our efforts to decrease child maltreatment and injury.”

In addition to Saint Francis Hospital, the other Child Safety Forward demonstration sites include: Cook County Health in Illinois; Indiana Department of Health; Sacramento County CA’s Child Abuse Prevention Council; and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Final reports from these four sites will be released in the fall of 2023. The technical assistance team is led by Within Our Reach, an office at Social Current.

About the Within Our Reach Office
Within Our Reach is an office established within Social Current (formerly the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities) to further the recommendations of the federal Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities. The goal of Within Our Reach is to equip policymakers, practitioners, and advocates with the tools they need to fundamentally reform child welfare. Based on the commission’s national strategy, desired reform includes a proactive public health approach—a shared family and community responsibility to keep children safe. Within Our Reach is made possible through collaboration with Casey Family Programs, whose mission is to provide, improve, and prevent the need for foster care.  

Disclaimer: This product was supported by cooperative agreement number 2019-V3-GX-K005, awarded by the Office for Victims of Crime, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this product are those of the contributors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.

With the commencement of the 118th Congress this month, it is time to identify the leadership of both chambers of Congress, as well as the chairs and ranking members of key committees.

In the Senate, Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will retain their positions as majority leader and minority leader, respectively. Their whips will continue to be Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and John Thune (R-S.D.). Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) will step into the powerful leadership roles of chair and vice chair of the Appropriations Committee, which controls the annual process for passing the federal budget. The Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, which authorizes funding and decides policy on important social and education programs, will be chaired by Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who will be joined by ranking member Bill Cassidy (R-La.). Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Ranking Member John Boozman (R-Ark.) will remain the leaders of the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, which has jurisdiction over nutrition policy.

Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has the speaker’s gavel in the House after Republicans won a majority of congressional seats in the November midterms. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is the minority leader, replacing Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) as leader of the Democrats. On the Appropriations Committee, Kay Granger (R-Texas) and Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) will switch positions, the former becoming the chairwoman and the latter the ranking member. The Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee on Appropriations will be chaired by Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), with Rosa DeLauro serving as ranking member. Finally, Glenn Thompson (R-Penn.) will become chair, and David Scott (D-Ga.) will become the ranking member of the Committee on Agriculture.

Enhanced Nutrition Assistance Ends, Summer Meal Program Made Permanent

In the omnibus appropriations package passed last month, Congress made several changes to the child nutrition policy. Significantly, the package included $40 million to continue the Summer Electronic Benefit program, which provides low-income families with $40 per month per child for meals during the summer months. The summer program was started during the pandemic as a temporary program but will now become permanent. Unfortunately, the funding to make this program permanent was created by ending the enhanced Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, which were implemented during the pandemic to ensure families could put food on the table during the economic crisis. February will be the last month that the enhanced emergency allotments will be available to states.

Anti-Transgender Bills Also Hurt the Social Sector Workforce

Social Current has been following a story out of Texas, where, last year, Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote an order to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, requiring social workers to investigate parents of transgender children. The state argued that certain types of care for transgender children constituted child abuse. Numerous lawsuits have been brought against the department, putting the order on hold. Moreover, it is reported that 2,300 workers in the state child welfare agency workforce quit in protest. These types of orders present a danger, not just to transgender children, but also to the social sector workforce, which is already facing serious retention challenges coming out of the pandemic. Last year, a raft of anti-transgender bills was introduced and passed in state legislatures across the country. Social Current will continue to monitor these bills and others that threaten transgender children and the social sector workforce.

New Report from The Children’s Bureau on Title IV-B Funding Allocations

The Children’s Bureau in the Office of the Administration for Children and Families released a new report that outlines the planned and actual state expenditures on title IV-B programs. The two programs called the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Child Welfare Services Program and the MaryLee Allen Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program (PSSF), give funds to states to provide protective, family reunifications and preservation, foster care, and adoption services, as well as to cover administrative and workforce development costs.

Since actual expenditures for FY 2022 have not been identified, the report outlines the planned expenditures for FY 2022.
The report showed that states planned to spend over 45% of the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Child Welfare Services Program funding on protective services, compared to around 12% each on family reunification and preservations services. For PSSF, the Department of Health and Human Services strongly encourages states to spend about 20% of their funding allocation on each of the four service areas. In FY 2022, the states planned to divide their funding along these lines. The only actual expenditures covered in the report are for PSSF in FY 2019, which showed that states spent between 21% and 26% on the four main service areas: family preservation, family support, family reunification, and adoption promotion and support services. The report shows that these proportions remained consistent for F.Y. 2015 through F.Y. 2019.

Social Current, APHSA Partner to Co-Create New Framework for Community-Based and Public Sector Human Services Leaders

The American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) and Social Current have a long history of collaboration. With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the two organizations will continue partnering to develop a new leadership framework for health and human services leaders to work together across system boundaries.

Read more in this article by APHSA President and CEO Tracy Wareing Evans and Social Current President and CEO Jody Levison-Johnson from the latest edition of Policy & Practice.

Subscribe to the Policy and Advocacy Radar to receive our biweekly policy roundup, which includes commentary on issues in Social Current’s federal policy agenda, opportunities to take action, and curated news and opportunities.

Just before Christmas, Congress passed a $1.7 trillion bill to fund the federal government for fiscal year 2023. The House voted 225-201 to support the package, while the Senate passed the bill 68-29. On Dec. 29, President Biden signed the bill into law. The enormous bill, passed on a bipartisan basis after months of intense negotiations, includes $772.5 billion in non-defense discretionary programs, an increase over FY 2022. Though a deal to expand the child tax credit while extending some corporate tax breaks was in the works at the end of negotiations, it failed to make it into the final bill. Several provisions of interest to the social sector, however, were included. Here is a summary of some of these provisions, courtesy of our friends at the American Public Human Services Association:

New Mental Health Funds from Bipartisan Safer Communities Act

On Jan. 9, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) received a new $245 million tranche of funding from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Made available through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act passed last June, these funds will help address the youth mental health crisis, provide the health care workforce with mental health resources, and fill other gaps in the mental health care system. Specifically, the SAMHSA grants will provide:

HHS also awarded the HRSA $60 million to fund mental health training for primary care clinicians.

988 Lifeline Receives New Grants

Last month, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced $130 million in new funding for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. The funding is part of almost $500 million the Biden administration has disbursed to the 988 Lifeline in the last two years. These latest grants include $47 million to states and territories to improve the program, and $21.1 million for 988 Lifeline Tribal Response Grants and technical assistance for tribal communities. HHS also announced $64.8 million for Vibrant Emotional Health, the 988 Lifeline administrator, for various capacities, including language-based services, practical training, call routing, center expansion, and specialized care for vulnerable populations. The 988 Lifeline, which Congress began funding in 2020, provides free and confidential counseling to people with mental-health-related stress.

New Independent Sector Report on the Nonprofit Sector

On Dec. 31, 2022, Independent Sector released its Quarterly Report, Health of the U.S. Nonprofit Sector, which provides data and analysis on the social sector for the second and third quarters of 2022. The report included good and bad news for the sector. The nonprofit sector contributed $1.5 trillion to the economy in the third quarter, up $1 billion from prior quarters. Its gross value added was 5.6 percent of GDP, which is typical for recent years. The number of volunteers declined by 19 percent from 2019 to 2020, and the number of donors decreased by seven percent in 2022 compared to the year before, though the number of dollars donated increased by 6.2 percent year-over-year. Nonprofit workers’ family income increased by 4.2 percent in the third quarter of 2022, with the largest growth in employees earning less than $40,000. Finally, 56 percent of the public trusted nonprofits to do what was right in 2022, 3 percentage points less than in 2020.

Social Current, APHSA Partner to Co-Create New Framework for Community-Based and Public Sector Human Services Leaders

The American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) and Social Current have a long history of collaboration. With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the two organizations will continue partnering with purpose to develop a new leadership framework for health and human services leaders to work together and across system boundaries.

Read more in this article by APHSA President and CEO Tracy Wareing Evans and Social Current President and CEO Jody Levison-Johnson from the latest edition of Policy & Practice.

Subscribe to the Policy and Advocacy Radar to receive our biweekly policy roundup, which includes commentary on issues in Social Current’s federal policy agenda, opportunities to take action, and curated news and opportunities.

Several Social Current network organizations recently participated in two focus groups with the Department of Education to discuss ideas for advancing equity in the federal Full-Service Community Schools program. This program focuses on using local partnerships to integrate academics, youth development, family support, health and social services, and community development. Community schools also work to advance equity through efforts to pool resources, maximize community assets and engagement, and allow supports to be tailored to each student.

Community-based organizations, through their expertise and extensive experience, play a critical role in supporting educational success by:

Recognizing the potential of community schools to reduce disparities and increase educational success for all children, Social Current advocates for increased funding as part of its federal policy agenda. In the most recent fiscal year budget, funding for this program more than doubled—from $30 million to $75 million.

Social Current also works to champion the expertise of its network to policy leaders in the administration and on the Hill. In working with Dr. Bernadine Futrell in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Social Current serves as a key resource for the Department of Education in its ongoing efforts to gain insight from community-based organizations, elevate partnerships to support students and their families, and encourage new program applicants.

Social Current coordinated two focus groups for community-based organizations in the network to share their experiences as potential applicants, previous applicants, and grant recipients. Participants included:

“We are thankful to Social Current for setting up the focus group with Dr. Futrell,” said Lynn Kyle, executive director of Lampion Center. “We found it to be very helpful in hearing her passion and hopes, sharing some of our thoughts and wishes, and also just having the real-time connection with her and the Department of Education.”

In the weeks since the focus group, the 2022 Full-Service Community Schools grant awards were announced. The number of awardees doubled from last year as a result of collective advocacy and increasing the dollars appropriated to this funding stream. Congratulations to the awardees! The 2023 application will be available in spring 2023. View the latest information about the federal program online.

Additional Opportunities and Resources

Last week, leaders in the House and Senate appropriations committees announced a deal framework for funding the federal government for the fiscal year 2023. The omnibus package has a $1.7 trillion price tag, with Democrats and Republicans agreeing to $858 billion in defense spending. The parties are still about $26 billion apart on domestic spending. To buy time to complete the negotiations, both chambers of Congress passed continuing resolutions to fund the government until Dec. 23, one week past the original deadline. Until recently, speculation was growing that the negotiations would need to continue into next year under the new Congress; however, both Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have voiced support for this year-end deal, building momentum for its passage. Lawmakers are still negotiating the inclusion of a potential tax deal in the omnibus package that would include an expanded child tax credit and renewed corporate tax breaks. However, it remains to be seen whether the agreement will survive. It is also unclear whether the universal charitable deduction, a social sector priority, will be included. Social Current will continue to monitor the negotiations.

MIECHV Passes the House, Heads for the Senate

On Dec. 2, the Jackie Walorski Maternal, Infant, and Child Home Visiting (MIECHV) Reauthorization Act of 2022 passed in the House with a vote of 390-26. Named after the late congresswoman who advocated for MIECHV, the bill reauthorizes program funding for five years and improves program oversight. The bill increases the annual base funding by $100 million starting in the fiscal year 2023. It creates an additional phased-in federal matching component, through which the federal government contributes $3 for every $1 the states contribute. The new funding also includes asides for workforce support, research, administration, and technical assistance. The bill improves oversight by implementing a new “outcomes dashboard” for Congress to track the program’s outcomes for families, along with a requirement of a new annual report detailing the results of the program to Congress. These changes are geared toward helping new parents and their children from pregnancy until kindergarten with health challenges and school readiness. The Senate is expected to vote on the bill this week.

New Report from DHS on the Youth Mental Health Crisis

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHS) published a new report entitled National Guidelines for Child and Youth Behavioral Health Crisis Care in response to the rising toll of mental health challenges on children and youth in the US. The report rolls out guidelines to communities on providing this vulnerable population with services that are not currently delivered. For example, it encourages communities to take advantage of the new national 988 suicide and crisis lifeline, which gives youth and families around-the-clock access to counselors. The report also recommends using mobile response teams that meet children and youth in their homes, schools, and communities. Finally, the report suggests crisis receiving and stabilization services, like in-home and crisis care facilities. Overall, the new guidelines encourage crisis response teams to build formal connections with entities in the community to create a full continuum of care. 

Mental Health Parity Discussion Draft Released

Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR), Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-ID), and Senate Finance Committee members Sens. Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.), released the fifth and final so-called “discussion draft” of the bipartisan mental health initiative that began earlier this year. This final report centers on mental health parity and ensuring mental and physical health are equally accessible and covered through health insurance. The team made several recommendations. For instance, the report asks Medicaid managed care organizations and Medicare Advantage plans to provide accurate and updated directories of providers and information on whether providers are accepting new patients. It also would require the Government Accountability Office to conduct two studies comparing the cost of mental health and substance use disorder services with the cost of physical health care under Medicare Advantage and Medicaid. Finally, the report requires that Medicare give providers guidance on how long they can provide partial hospitalization and particular outpatient services to beneficiaries with SUDs.

Hearing on AmeriCorps Focuses on Program’s Financial Health

Last Wednesday, the House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Investments hosted a hearing called “Examining the Policies and Practices of the Corporation for National Community Service.” Chairwoman Frederica S. Wilson (D-FL) opened the hearing with positive words for the CNCS, also known as AmeriCorps. Since 1993, she said, over one million Americans had participated in AmeriCorps, helping rebuild neighborhoods after Hurricane Katrina, for example, and aiding food-insecure families and mentoring students throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Though Congresswoman Wilson stressed that AmeriCorps is “essential for our communities” and that the program has earned bipartisan support since its inception, it struggles from poor financial health. Deborah Jeffrey, from the Office of the Inspector General, detailed some of the agency’s challenges in accounting for its $1.3 billion budget, including reporting its grant funds in real-time. Michael Smith, CEO of CNCS, testified that financial management had been his top priority since he began as CEO last year and that needed reforms had begun to be implemented. He noted that the American Rescue Plan and recent annual appropriations had provided resources the CNCS needs to address some of these long-standing issues. 

Subscribe to the Policy and Advocacy Radar to receive our biweekly policy roundup, which includes commentary on issues in Social Current’s federal policy agenda, opportunities to take action, and curated news and opportunities.

COA Accreditation, a service of Social Current, is proposing enhancements to its standards that will be released in early 2023.

The Residential Treatment (RTX) standards have been revised to better address important topics in the field, including resident voice and choice, family involvement, trauma-informed care, strategies for reducing the use of restrictive interventions, and how to help residents develop the skills to manage challenges and live successfully at home and in the community.

These recommended updates are now open for review and comment from the field. Download and review the proposed standards. The deadline to make comments is Jan. 11, 2023.

COA Accreditation has also proposed equity, diversity, and inclusion enhancements to its standards to better promote the delivery of equitable services for all people through physically and psychologically safe, welcoming, and trauma-informed environments. Submit feedback on these revisions by Jan. 3, 2023.

These proposed updates reflect an in-depth review and synthesis of prominent published research and professional literature as well as collaboration with a diverse group of subject matter experts from this field. The field comment period is a critical step in our process because it ensures our standards are field informed by including input from provider organizations in the development process.

This critical pairing of research and practice ensures that the COA Accreditation standards remain rigorous, practical, and reflective of current trends and evolving practices and continue to promote improved outcomes for individuals, families, and communities.