Bridges had a very successful legislative session due to many factors. The Bridges Fly-in continues to put elected officials in touch with mental health consumers who are their constituents. There is nothing more powerful than a grassroots campaign of consumers canvassing the state capital. The culmination of the fly-in over 5 years has created a positive reception for mental health consumers. No longer do legislators and staff say "Bridges, you need to talk to someone on the transportation committee". This is an enormous difference than when we began the Bridges Campaign in 1993.
Working more closely with other organizations that have similar goals has also increased our effectiveness, More eyes, ears, coordination, contacts and information helps us reach our goals. This year working closely with Bob Briggs, of the Disability Law Center, we got HB 459, Medicaid for disabled passed. Working with Walter Majoros, AMHB, on parity and civil commitment enabled us to be successful with those issues. A broader base of interactio with the Department, Commissioner and staff created a more cohesive team effort on issues like kiddy care, parity, and civil commitment to name a few.
Bridges effectiveness continues to get stronger the more we work together
Here's what we accomplished this year:
Mental Health Audits - were a big issue at the beginning of the session. The results of the audits were not complimentary to programs and a concern about a back lash to funding was warranted. Working closely with legislators on key committees, such as Son. Sean Parnell and Rep. Mark Hanley, we had have full finance committee and subcommittee hearings with Legislative Budget and Audit presenting their perspective. Testimony provided by the mental health community helped turn the audit results into questions rather than accusations.
Although this process seemed to drag out the end result was no budget cuts for mental health programs.
SCR 14, creating a parity task force passed the legislature with bipartisan support. After 5 hearings In the Senate HESS Committee we were able to move through the rest of the legislative process. We started from ground zero on the issue. Parity for mental health was a term that the majority of legislators had no knowledge about. A full-blown educational and lobbying campaign was developed with position papers and the establishment of a parity working group. We met regularly during the session by conference call to help coordinate a state-wide effort which proved effective. SCR 14 passed.
Getting SCR 14 passed was only part of the process though. Ensuring that key majority members were Wiling to serve on the committee became a major issue during the last tow weeks of the session. We knew once the legislature ended that getting legislators to serve would be much harder. Working together we got House and Senate majority members who serve on the powerful Finance Committee to be appointed. The Task Force currently is meeting and moving forward. We are anticipating a Task Force report by January that will outline various options for implementing parity in Alaska,
HB 459, enables the disabled to receive Medicaid and work. This bill had a slow start but began picking up support as legislators realized how it would Impact Individuals and the potential for cost savings under Medicaid. State wide testimony from individuals who would be eligible under this bill was powerful. Plus the fiscal note that passed with the bill shows a cost saving of $43,700 in FY 99 alone. One sticky point in Senate HESS was the transition provisions during the regulatory process. The Disability Law Center took the lead on this issue. We worked closely with Bob Briggs to ensure broad based support. Passage was almost unanimous in both Houses.
SB 216, civil commitment of sexual predators was a sleeper, Introduced January 12, Me bill didn't have it's first hearing until April 22. From there it picked up speed with the prime sponsor, Senator Halford, using his political skills to ensure it was heard and moved from several committees very quickly. The implications of this bill became clear as the various departments that would be impacted (Corrections, HESS, Courts) provided analysis. The mental health communities concern was twofold. 1. whether funding for implementation would come out of existing mental health budgets and 2. where these individuals would be housed and if they would displace the mentally ill at API. It was assumed there could be 2 to 4 Individuals a year that would be incarcerated under this legislation, with more each year, costs could be for the balance of that persons life. Also the cost of placing someone out of state was astronomical, thus a concern whether API would be utilized and where funding would come from. At one point the fiscal note attached was $726,500 annually. We were able to have an amendment adopted in the House Judiciary Committee that ensures treatment could not be provided in the state's central psychiatric facility. The fiscal note attached was whittled down to $84,200. The bill passed the Senate and died on the House Calendar when the session ended. This bill will be back this session.
Other issues that we were involved with included the Governors Healthy Family Initiative with kiddy care covering an additional 6,000 children and 800 pregnant women and fully funding mental health grants and Medicaid funding at the current level. In addition we fought hard to continue funding for General Relief Medical.
Bridges has continued working during the Interim on election year Issues. We did a candidates questionnaire regarding mental health issues, Included were questions about candidates positions on parity, API/community implementation plan, managed mental health system changes, consumer roles, rural mental health services and mental health funding. Responses have been very positive. An example is support for parity coming from Senator Taylor, Senator Donley, Rep. Ryan and
These questionnaires become tools for us to evaluate where legislators are on issues and plan a strategy to further educate them. The responses to these questionnaires will be available on the Bridges portion of the Mental Health Association of Alaska's web site www.alaska.net/-mhaa, We are also looking at linking with the Division of Elections so that consumers can register to vote, find out who their legislators are and ultimately send e-mail messages directly to them.