The Integrated Behavioral Health Project (IBHP) has published the 2013 version of its online Partners in Health: Mental Health, Primary Care and Substance Use Inter-agency Collaboration Tool Kit. Developed by the IBHP and sponsored by the California Mental Health Services Authority’s Statewide Stigma and Discrimination Reduction Initiative, the toolkit is designed to help primary care clinics and behavioral health agencies forge collaborative relationships. It includes job descriptions, sample agreements and contracts, screening instruments and evaluation measures, operational forms, strategies and prototypes for integrating mental and physical services, practical advice, issues to consider when brokering agreements, mutual role descriptions and much more. An interactive table of contents allows users to link directly to the sections they’re interested in. To access the toolkit, visit http://www.ibhp.org/IBHP_Interagency_Collaboration_Tool_Kit_2013.pdf.

The National Association of Medicaid Directors (NAMD) earlier this month sent a letter to the Senate Health, Education, and Pension Committee offering recommendations for increasing Medicaid’s effectiveness in delivering and funding mental health services. The letter strongly supports eliminating the exclusion policy for Medicaid Institutions for Mental Disease (IMD), which prohibits Medicaid funds from being used to pay for medically necessary inpatient care for people ages 21 to 64 who reside in IMDs. “The policy leaves adults with severe mental illness as the sole category for whose inpatient care Medicaid will not reimburse except under circumstances which narrowly limit choice, and likely compromise quality,” the letter states. “Not only is this outdated policy discriminatory, it also impedes advancement of the federal and state government’s policy priorities and preferred delivery system structures.”

The RAND Corporation, a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and
decision-making through research and analysis, has released a technical report, “Interventions to Prevent Suicide: A Literature Review to Guide Evaluation of California’s Mental Health Prevention and Early Intervention Initiative.”  The report evaluates many suicide prevention initiatives.

California’s Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission (MHSOAC) has added nine new evaluation results and projects fact sheets to its website. Eight of the fact sheets summarize MHSOAC-funded evaluations completed to date; one describes evaluations under way or planned for the immediate future. Summarizing a range of research initiatives — from evaluating the state’s mental health needs to tracking spending of the Mental Health Services Act — the fact sheets are available at www.mhsoac.ca.gov/MHSOAC_Publications/Fact-Sheets.aspx.

Participants in the Inpatient Psychiatric Facility Quality Reporting (IPFQR) program can begin the registration process on the QualityNet website. Prior to participating in the program, IPFs must complete registration and identify a QualityNet administrator in their facility to follow the registration process. In addition, IPFs must complete an online notice of participation (NOP) by Aug. 15, indicating they agree to participate in the IPFQR program and publicly report their measure rates. Due to a delay in providing an online NOP, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has posted an interim form as a PDF on the QualityNet website. A webinar for IPFQR participants will be held Feb. 14 at 11 a.m. (PT). Hosted by Telligen, the IPFQR support contractor, the webinar will include a review of the QualityNet registration process. To participate, go to the registration page.