President's Message - Spring 2010
Challenges and Opportunities
The past few months have seen several challenges and opportunities for NARMH and the Board.
These challenges and opportunities I greet with mixed emotions. On the one hand there is great
excitement about our upcoming conference and the potential opportunities with the passage of health
care reform. On the other hand, there are changes in the Board, due to the death of our President-Elect,
Ann Schumacher.
Ann Schumacher
The NARMH family is saddened by the sudden death of Ann Schumacher, March 23, 2010. Ann was our President-Elect,
Co-Chair for the 2012 conference and served on several key committees for the organization. Ann touched many lives
through her work as a NARMH Board member and as a therapist. Her senseless, tragic, death has left us with many
questions that may never be answered. As mental health specialists we see many types of tragedies, deal with client
loss and grief, and teach others how trauma impacts people. However, when it affects us personally it reminds us all
how important our relationships are with our family, friends and colleagues as we seek to understand and heal from
such traumatic events. Ann’s loss will be felt by a lot of people, and by NARMH as well. The NARMH Board expresses
our heartfelt condolences to Ann’s family and especially to her children. Ann’s legacy will live in each one of us
who knew and worked with her. For more about Ann please read the following articles: Ann Schumacher:
A True Champion for Rural Mental Health, page 3, and Victim Recalled for Faith, Devotion to Kids, page 4.
Health Care Reform Challenges and Opportunities
The passage of the recent Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the earlier
Mental Health Parity Act is good news for all of us, providers and consumers alike. Taken together the
legislation includes parity for mental health and addiction services, expansion of Medicaid, and expands the
insurance opportunities for individuals with mental illnesses and substance abuse. It requires that insurance
companies provide coverage despite pre-existing conditions and the elimination of lifetime and annual limits on
benefits which is good for those with mental illnesses.
The parity legislation did not mandate mental health coverage. However it did stipulate that if an insurer
is providing any mental health care benefits, those benefits must be on par with the benefits for all other medical
conditions. The health care reform bill goes further in its reach and says that mental health coverage is an
essential health benefit, and it must be part of all basic insurance policies. By June of this year, consumers
will have access to high-risk pool insurance policies that will provide coverage to those with pre-existing
conditions, including mental health diagnoses. Many of whom were previously unable to obtain insurance will.
There are provisions for mandated screening and later prevention education. Both would improve recognition of
mental health symptoms and provide for more timely access to evidence-based-treatment.
With any new legislation there will be challenges and opportunities. The opportunities will mean changes to
the mental health system and improved access to care. However, are we ready for the change? More access means more
clients, and as we already know, rural and frontier areas have shortages of qualified mental health professionals.
Therefore, workforce issues will be a critical issue as we move forward. Another challenge will be the use of
and effectiveness of Evidence-Based-Practice (EBP), particularly in rural areas. A challenge for rural providers
and researchers will be to help determine how best to implement EBPs and how effective they are with diverse
rural populations. Other challenges will be how rural providers move forward with respect to payment systems
and technology implementation. These are but a few issues that the rural mental health community will face as
we move forward with health care reform.
NARMH has always advocated for ways to improve access, availability, acceptability of mental health and
substance abuse services in rural and frontier areas. We will continue to monitor how the changes play out
and be ready to engage provider, researchers and policy makers to fulfill the promise of health care reform.
See Ya in Denver!
We invite you to come to Denver, Colorado from June 2 through June 5 to attend the 36th Annual National
Association for Rural Mental Health Conference. This conference provides a unique opportunity for researchers,
clinicians, administrators, consumers, family members, program/service providers, and policy makers to share
information on how to improve and promote behavioral health care in rural and frontier settings. The theme of the
conference this year is “Innovations in Caring for Rural America†and speaks to our fundamental commitment to
enhance the quality of behavioral health care in rural communities. We believe that building and sustaining
partnerships, fostering innovation, and supporting research in rural and frontier communities is important to
promote the health and behavioral health of rural people. The goals for this year’s conference are to 1) Continue
the annual dialogue to expand knowledge of rural and frontier behavioral health, 2) Highlight innovative practices
and research in rural communities, and 3) Promote networking opportunities to foster connections between people
committed to rural behavioral health.