Arthur C. Evans, Jr. PhD, Commissioner, Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services, Philadelphia, presented testimony before the US House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on March 26. The focus of the hearing was on psychiatric bed capacity. His testimony emphasized the need for community based services in addition to prevention and early intervention. Excerpts from the testimony follow:
…Prevention and early intervention are more efficient than a singular focus on treatment.
Further, instead of just an individual focus, we need to focus on community interventions---increasing understanding of mental health issues, reducing environmental stressors such as violence and trauma, increasing safe and healthy housing, developing employment opportunities, and decreasing misperceptions of mental illness that prevent people from seeking out help when they need it.
…Our behavioral health system needs more resources focused on broad-based outreach, prevention, early intervention and engagement for individuals and their families. We know that early intervention can dramatically improve the trajectory of mental illness and recovery. Behavioral health systems across the country need more flexibility to fund these "upstream" activities. I believe we should be spending at least one third of our budgets on prevention and early-intervention services.
http://docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF02/20140326/101980/HHRG-113-IF02-Wstate-EvansA-20140326.pdf
Comments (0)