Bumper sticker on Pete’s old truck
(2-8-21) Let’s hope the Biden Administration takes advantage of a wonderful tool that could help the federal government better coordinate and prioritize its mental health programs.
The Interdepartmental Serious Mental Illness Coordinating Committee (ISMICC) was created in December 2016 by Congress to foster collaboration and shared accountability for the 8 federal agencies that deliver services to adults with serious mental illnesses (SMIs) and children and youth with serious emotional disturbances (SEDs) and their families.
Within a year, ISMICC’s first report was sent to Congress. Titled: The Way Forward: Federal Action for a System That Works for All People Living With SMI and SED and Their Families and Caregivers, the report offered 45 recommendations in five categories, that were drafted by ISMICC’s fourteen public members. As a parent representative on ISMICC, I focused on much needed criminal justice reforms.
Among the recommendations that I helped write:
- support implementation of the sequential intercept model that identifies key moments when incarcerated individuals with SMI and SED can get into treatment,
- support jail and prison diversion programs,
- train all first responders on how to work with individuals with SMI and SED,
- improve and streamline competency restoration services,
- support therapeutic justice dockets for SMI and SED individuals,
- require universal screening for SMIs and SEDs for every person booked into jail,
- limit or eliminate solitary confinement, seclusion, restraint and other forms of restrictive housing for SMI and SED prisoners,
- support post conviction recovery services,
- support federal programs created to reduce incarceration of SMI and SED Americans.
These are lofty, but achievable goals.
After that report was issued, my 13 public colleagues and I got right to work with the 15 representatives from the government agencies and departments that administer SMI and SED programs.