The Mississippi Department of Mental Health (DMH) receives federal grant money from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to help adults and children with mental illnesses or substance-use disorders live successfully in the community. Because every state is different, each can decide the best ways to use this money to ensure people dealing with mental illness or substance use get the help they need. A planning council, made up of people who deal with mental illness or substance use or who care about people with mental illness or substance use challenges, helps the Department of Mental Health decide how to spend the grant money most helpfully.
This survey is from the Department of Mental Health and the Mississippi Behavioral Health Planning and Advisory Council. We want to know how you think DMH should use this money to help adults and children with mental illness and substance use disorders live in the community. Anyone can take this survey. We especially encourage people with mental illnesses or substance use disorders and their families to take it. You know better than anyone what has and hasn’t helped you and what might help you in the future.
As you take the survey, please keep these things in mind:
· We can use this money for existing services or fund new ideas. You may have an idea that would help many people that no one else has thought of. We want to hear it.
· This money is to help adults and children with mental illness and/or substance-use challenges live in the community. Think about things that help all adults and children live in the community, such as jobs, doing OK at school and having friends and things to do. How could this money help people with mental illness and/or substance use challenges have those things? It doesn’t have to be a formal service. It can be just a way of providing support.
· We can use this money in the mental health system or in another system that helps people with mental illness and/or substance use challenges live, work, go to school and have friends in the community.
· We can use this money to help prevent issues with mental illness and/or substance use and to evaluate the effectiveness of different approaches.
Your answers to this survey are anonymous. We cannot tell who you are when we read your responses. If you have questions and want to talk to someone before taking the survey, contact the Mississippi Behavioral Health Planning and Advisory Council co-chairs. They are Dr. Scott Willoughby (swilloughby@smsh.ms.gov) and Ms. Tiffany Tine (tiffany_tine@nmsh.state.ms.us).
If you have any technical issues with the survey, please get in touch with Ms. August Irving (August.Irving@dmh.ms.gov) or Dr. Mallory Malkin (Mallory.Malkin@dmh.ms.gov).
Again, your answers to this survey will help the Department of Mental Health and the Mississippi Behavioral Health Planning and Advisory Council know what services and supports would help people with mental illness and substance use challenges live successfully in the community and how you want the grant money allocated to make those things happen.
The survey results and plans for spending the grant money will be published on the Department of Mental Health website and shared by organizations and individuals on the Mississippi Behavioral Health and Advisory Planning Council. If you would like a representative to contact you about the survey results, you can give your name and email address at the end of the survey.
You can take the survey by clicking this link.
You can also use the QR code to the right to launch the survey with a mobile device.
[Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash]
