Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System is one of Maine’s standard health behavior surveillance systems, data from which informs policy development, program planning, and other public health interventions for chronic disease prevention. This project will assist the Maine BRFSS coordinator and the Maine CDC to achieve BRFSS objectives. Muskie School staff will update the BRFSS interactive web query as well as maintain multiple-year standardized datasets, add the most recent year of data, and update documentation. Muskie staff will also perform other analyses as necessary, including multivariate and trend analyses to help the Maine CDC better understand prevalence, risk factors and disease management for health behaviors and conditions (such as diabetes, asthma, and cardiovascular disease) that impose a heavy burden on the residents of Maine and its health care system.
Established in 1992, the mission of the Maine Rural Health Research Center is to inform health care policy making and the delivery of rural health services through high quality, policy-relevant research, policy analysis and technical assistance on rural health issues of regional and national significance. The Center's core funding is provided by the federal Office of Rural Health Policy.
Citation: Lambert, D., & Gale, J.A. (2012). Integrating care in rural areas. In Smalley, K.B., Warren, J.C., & Rainer, J.P. (Eds.), Rural Mental Health. (pp. 131-148). New York, NY: Springer Publishing Co.
It is well-established that rural communities suffer disproportionatley from a shortage of mental health professionals. Non-physician mental health professionals include psychologists, social workers, marriage and family therapists, and licensed professional counselors. This study investigates whether and to what extent licensure laws that determine the permissible scope of practice for each of these professions may affect the availability of mental health services.
This study examines licensure statutes and administrative rules for these professions in all states with at least ten percent of the population living in rural areas (total of 40 states). To determine scope of practice for each of these mental health professions, we examined their legal authority to provide five core mental health services: assessment, diagnosis, treatment planning, individual and group counseling, and psychotherapy. Since prescriptive authority had not been granted to any of these professions at the time of our study, this function was excluded from our analysis.
With funding from the Maine Health Access Foundation, Muskie School faculty and staff worked with the Maine Development Foundation and the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center at the University of Maine to develop and deliver a day-long educational forum for the Maine legislature on health care on January 26, 2007. In addition to a keynote address by Dr. Karen Davis from the Commonwealth Fund, breakout sessions with accompanying Issue Briefs were held on a variety of topics including Medicaid, rural health, workforce, health information technology, state health reform, Maine?s Dirigo health reform initiative, behavioral health, public health, and Maine?s aging population. All Issue Briefs and presentations from the Forum are available for viewing and download from the Muskie School?s website at http://muskie.usm maine.edu
Expanding the qualified workforce in pbulic sector behavioral health is critical to the delivery and administration of quality services across Maine. This proposal continues the collaboration among 5 UMS programs to work directly with public mental health sector officials in linking best practice knowledge with policy and field experience. Students and faculty from a variety of disciplines gain valuable experience with the public sector. Funded interships contribute to an expanded, well trained workforce for Maine's mental health system.
Muskie School staff assisted the Maine Department of Health and Human Services to identify state expenditures on substance abuse services, for use in developing a managed behavioral health care initiative.
In October 2007, the Department of Health & Human Services contracted with APS HealthCare to assist in the management of behavioral healthcare services purchased by OMS and managed by the offices of Adult Mental Health, Children's Behavioral Health and the Office of Substance Abuse. APS HealthCare will primarily conduct eligibility verification and utilization management of specific behavioral health services including selected case management, psychiatric inpatient and outpatient, community support services, home-based mental health services, and substance abuse treatment. APS HealthCare will confirm eligibility; perform prior authorization of both initial and continued service use, and conduct utilization review. MaineCare members identified by having a behavioral health service claim will automatically be included in the Administrative Service Organization(ASO) panel. Additionally, APS HealthCare, in conjunction with DHHS staff, will develop utilization management guidelines for appropriate service use based on the specific population needs and covered services.
Working with key staff at DHHS, we will develop methodology for tracking and monitoring costs and use of services that are likely to be impacted by the work of APS HealthCare and set up a reporting mechanism to allow the State to effectively monitor and track these services in a timely way. Additionally, an evaluation plan will be developed to systematically examine the impact of APS HealthCare on the trend in behavioral health service use. The evaluation methodology would allow DHHS to systematically evaluate the impact of the APS HealthCare after a year of experience.
USM Social Dashboard »
Check out our new Social Dashboard to see other ways to stay connected across the USM community.