We urge you to attend the Mississippi Joint Planning and Advisory Council in person on November 2, 2023, from 10 a.m. to noon at Hudspeth Regional Center in the Chastain Auditorium. This meeting is an excellent opportunity to make your voice heard about mental health and substance use services in the state.
The council comprises people who use mental health and substance use services, their families, community members and people who work in mental health and related systems and agencies across the state. Federal law mandates that every state has a council. The council’s duties are to assess unmet mental health and substance use treatment needs and advise the state mental health system on using its federal block grant funds to meet these needs.
Over the past year, Mississippi’s council has made great strides in assessing unmet needs in the state and plans to work with the Department of Mental Health on its block grant plan and spending. These are tremendous tasks, though, and everyone’s help is wanted and needed.
You can be involved with the council in several ways: apply to become a member, join either the newly formed membership or block grant planning sub-committees, give public comments about needs you see or ideas you have, or start by attending the meeting and learning more.
Please come out on Thursday, November 2, and participate in the meeting. Exciting things are happening with this group; we want you to be a part of them. We strongly encourage in-person attendance, but there is also a virtual option for those who can’t make it in person.
Topics on the agenda include Mississippi’s Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic Planning Grant, an update on 988 crisis services, location options for meetings and opportunities to join committees. All meetings include time for public comments and announcements.
