Behavioral Health

Political maneuvering late in the Texas Legislative session saved efforts to improve the effectiveness of and access to behavioral health care in Texas. Today’s TMA Legislative News Hotline video looks at the moves to save Senate Bill 10, which will provide community-level health treatment programs, and mental health research.

With a unified voice and a unanimous vote, the Senate passed a bill this week designed to identify children with mental-health needs and direct them to appropriate, timely treatment.

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Article III (which covers education) met yesterday, giving TMA the chance to submit testimony supporting the Texas Education Agency’s Safe and Healthy Schools Initiative, known as Rider 74. Rider 74 would appropriate $37 million to equip Texas public schools with the resources needed to improve student mental health.

Suicide is a growing health problem. With the U.S. and Texas facing a long-standing shortage of psychiatrists, there's real opportunity for primary care physicians to reach vulnerable patients.

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) has created an ombudsman position to help your behavioral health patients understand their rights.

Most public health measures languished in the 85th Texas Legislature, but those for mental health care stood out as a giant exception. Lawmakers passed more than a dozen bills aimed at improving mental health care. And at a time when most state budgets were slashed, funding for mental health care rose ― by a lot.

Texas has made great strides in increasing access to community-based behavioral health care services. But physicians must have the authority to responsibly protect patients in our emergency departments who may be a danger to themselves or others.

“There is no greater challenge to the health and well-being of Texans than mental illness and substance abuse,” writes David Lakey, MD, immediate past-commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS). Texas Medicine’s issue on mental health aims to educate physicians of all specialties on how to manage and treat mental health.

TMF Health Quality Institute’s Innovation Team has scoured medical literature for best practices, interviewed medical practices attempting to implement behavioral health into their workflow and taken the learnings from projects such as the Comprehensive Primary Care initiative to find the best information about how to be successful in integrating behavioral health into primary care.