TaMMS receives funding to extend program

In May, the TaMMS team received pledges of $45,000 from both St. Joseph Mercy Health System and the University of Michigan Health System, and a third grant of $100,000 from the Flynn Foundation, to extend the project through June 2016. This additional funding leverage up to $220,000 from the state, allowing the program to have … Read more

Tailored mental health management

On June 12th, a pilot project, the Tailored Mental Health Management and Support (TaMMS) Project began. The project was designed to help manage the treatment of depression and anxiety for patients served by four safety net clinics in Washtenaw County. The goal: to provide flexible, coordinated, and affordable services for patients with depression/anxiety served in … Read more

Addressing the Opioid Epidemic

In early January, after the Mental Health and Substance Use workgroup published its Detox Protocol Guide, the group began to review—at the request of  Adreanne Waller and Marcia Scalera at the Washtenaw County Health Department—the county’s opiate use, existing treatment services, and overdoses. The review specifically focused on the cause and impact of increased overdose … Read more

Assessing mild and moderate mental health

In February 2013, the Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder workgroup initiated a Mild to Moderate Mental Health Assessment at community-based primary care safety net clinics, including St. Joe’s Neighborhood Family Health Center, St. Joe’s Academic Internal Medicine Center, Michigan Medicine’s A. Alfred Taubman Health Care Center, and Michigan Medicine’s Ypsilanti Health Center. The information … Read more

Substance Use Detox Protocol Guide is released

In July, after receiving feedback from providers, the Mental Health and Substance Use Care workgroup updated the Substance Use Detox Protocol guide it had developed earlier in the year and began to disseminate it to primary care physicians across Washtenaw County. 

The Detox Protocol Guide

In January, the Mental Health and Substance Use Care Work Group sent a draft of its Detox Protocol Guide to local providers for recommendations. The group had been working on this guide since August 2011 with the goal to assess community treatment capacity (e.g., assessment, detox, residential treatment, and recovery services) to ultimately guide the … Read more

Seven new projects

At the June 28th Steering Committee meeting, the WHI leaders formally outlined seven projects: Primary Care Navigation; Care Navigation; Dental Acute Care Expansion; Dental Reduced Fee Program; Streamlining Medicaid Eligibility as a Beta Test for the State; Medicaid Enrollment; and Community Outreach for Medicaid Enrollment. The projects’ goals and objectives were shared by the two … Read more

Addressing behavioral health concerns

On Monday, March 22nd, the Mental Health and Substance Abuse subcommittee met for the first time. The committee decided to focus on substance use for its first project, and would later begin to develop a resource for primary care physicians who work with residents who struggle with addiction. 

First WHI committees

By Monday, March 7th, during an early meeting of WHI Steering Committee members at the Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation (CHRT) in Ann Arbor, four committees had been established: primary care capacity, dental care, mental health and substance use disorder care, and health insurance enrollment. On the same day, the Dental Care subcommittee had … Read more