Senate Committee on HELP – Health Workforce RFI – Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorder

We posted on March 21, AAHD and the Lakeshore Foundation submission to a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) RFI on health workforce issues. Our comments focused on non-traditional workers – community-based, non-medical credentialed, and a lived-experience framework serving persons with disabilities, aged individuals requiring long-term services and supports (LTSS), persons with mental illness and substance use disorder, persons served in the Medicaid home-and-community-based services (HCBS) programs, and persons with co-occurring conditions including those with chronic health conditions. Available here are four sister organizations submissions on  mental illness and substance use disorder services: (1) NAMI; (2) MHA; (3) DBSA; and (4) NASADAD. We also include here the comments of the state Medicaid directors (NAMD) whose statement includes multiple observations on peer support specialists. Our sister organization NASMHPD did not submit direct comments.