Reflections

By Joan Erney, JD

It has been nearly six months since I left state government and accepted a position with Community Care Behavioral Health Organization. Although I miss my co-workers and community partners, this new position has allowed me to reconnect with my policy roots, travel to other states, and do some thinking and writing about what behavioral health systems transformation could and should look like within a reformed health care system that embraces mental health parity!

One of the things that I was most proud of during my tenure as Deputy Secretary was the development of Certified Peer Specialists (CPS) as a Medicaid reimbursable service. As many of you shared with me, the training, the work opportunity, and the successes in delivering peer services has furthered personal recovery for the worker as well as for the person receiving the peer support. CPS services have also provided the catalyst in many communities for significant systems reform. In my new role with Community Care, I have seen the footprint of CPS across the state.

Within the proposed changes under healthcare reform and the implementation of mental health parity, there are many areas where we need to remain vigilant to ensure that an active voice of those who are participants in the behavioral health system, as well as those who work in the system, is heard! Under healthcare reform, more individuals will be able to access services, as many as 1.2 million in Pennsylvania; access to Medical Assistance benefits will be streamlined; and mental health parity will be required, so that the discrimination in insurance coverage for persons with behavioral health needs will be finally eliminated!

What are the opportunities and challenges for the CPS in this new re-formed health care system? What can or should a CPS be thinking about and doing? First, get informed and be involved. There is a lot of information available for you to review; some websites that I have found to be helpful include PA.gov, which has a Healthcare Reform and You section, as well as the sites for the Kaiser Foundation, PA Health Law, and SAMSHA.

Furthermore, we must create the evidence to ensure that CPS services remain valued and paid for in the Medicaid program! We must continue to reinforce the importance of peer services through data as well as stories.

And finally, stay hopeful; you more than others, know how to face and overcome challenges, remain hopeful, and create the opportunity for change and transformation. In our current economic and uncertain healthcare climate, these skills are essential to ensure that we continue our path toward behavioral health transformation!

Joan Erney is the Chief Business Development and Public Policy Officer for Community Care Behavioral Health; was formerly the Deputy Secretary for the Department of Public Welfare’s Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services; and will always be a friend of the peer support movement. This article, in its entirety, appeared in the Fall 2010 Newsletter from the Pennsylvania Peer Support Coalition. Click here for more information about the Pennsylvania Peer Support Coalition.

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