Last week, we shared with you that the Mississippi Department of Mental Health (DMH) had published its proposed certification standards changes for public comment. We thank the DMH for opening these standards two times for public comment and also appreciate Adam Moore, DMH Director of Planning and Communications, for his help with our questions.
Our comments focused on these issues:
- Mental health agencies and school districts should collaborate to implement Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) in ways that are individualized to the needs of each district and the students within them.
- Mississippi needs a broader array of school-based services beyond day treatment.
- Mental health providers should consider multiple ways to support families of children receiving special education services.
- DMH should ensure that wraparound facilitation occurs before a child receives services and that facilitators conduct wraparound correctly.
- Families must be able to choose among services and service providers.
- Representatives from Medicaid and managed care should be included on MAP teams.
- Rather than clinicians, peers should supervise peer supporters in keeping with national best practices.
- We need flexibility for kinship caregivers to become peer supporters even if they do not have legal custody of the children in their care.
- Prohibiting employers from requiring peer supporters to assist with civil commitments and other activities that can undermine the trust in the peer support relationship.
You can read our comments here. Please let us know if you have feedback on any of them.
