898: Community Crisis Centers, Congress Back In Session

SUMMER JOHNSON: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Friday, May 2, 2025. I'm Summer Johnson. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

KELLY CROSBIE: 

We're calling our initiative 'Crisis to Care' because what we're trying to do is to make sure that everyone across the state understands that there are crisis services, 24/7, free, and available to all.

JOHNSON: 

That's Kelly Crosbie with North Carolina's Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Use Services. Crosbyie says the state's new initiative aims to make sure everyone knows about the 988 national crisis line, and that there are behavioral health urgent cares and community crisis centers across North Carolina.

CROSBIE: 

So, we're building a series of urgent cares. We're calling them 'behavioral health urgent cares,' and also community crisis clinics, where you could actually get admitted and stay, and these are all a trauma-informed alternative to calling 911, or going to an emergency department.

JOHNSON: 

North Carolina is creating several new urgent care centers, bringing the total to over 20 across the state. The department's also doing a full-court press to change the attitude around mental health.

CROSBIE: 

We are also working on an anti-stigma campaign, so we've been very intentional about how we marketed the crisis services. We've actually been working with consumers and families across the state for well over a year now to really transform the way that we talk about mental health in the state.

JOHNSON: 

Crosbie is already hearing from communities on just how effective the initiative has been.

CROSBIE: 

Law enforcement will tell you, the community will tell you, the hospital will tell you they're seeing emergency room visits go down. They're seeing issues with police go down. They're seeing people who don't need to be incarcerated not being incarcerated because they've got this center now.

JOHNSON: 

You can learn more about all the work being done in North Carolina. There's a release online now. We have the link in the show notes.

After a few weeks off, Congress is back in Washington. ASTHO's Carolyn Mullen tells us what to expect in this week's View from Washington, D.C. report.

Happy Friday, Carolyn. We haven't heard from you on this show in a couple of weeks. How are you doing?

CAROLYN MULLEN: 

I'm wonderful. Congress was on recess for two weeks, and they just returned this week to get back to a lot of work.

JOHNSON: 

Congress is finally back. What's on the to-do list.

MULLEN: 

They have a massive to-do list right now. The House is specifically working on President Trump's quote, unquote, 'big, beautiful bill.' This is the reconciliation package which President Trump's priorities are, including tax reform, increasing funding for defense, and increasing funding for our border. However, to achieve that, there needs to be significant cost savings or reductions in spending. And we're watching a lot of media reports right now. Negotiations about potential changes to Medicaid, SNAP, and potential changes to the Prevention and Public Health Fund. But it's really important for our listeners to understand nothing has been written in legislative text yet, so as soon as text is released, ASTHO will issue a Legislative Alert, so that our members have awareness about what's happening in Congress right now.

JOHNSON: 

Carolyn, when we talk about legislative text and budget resolutions and budget pass back reconciliation and rescissions, can you walk us through what those terms really mean in 'normal-person-speak?'

MULLEN: 

Absolutely, it is the alphabet soup of Washington, D.C., and we have a tendency to speak in terminology that can be really confusing to the regular American public. So, budget resolution, this was passed by Congress a couple of weeks ago, and it sets in place a framework by which Congress is going to write this reconciliation package. Reconciliation package is an arcane term, but really what it means is that legislation can pass with a simple majority vote in the Senate. So, that's what reconciliation means. That's this 'big, beautiful bill' that we're referring to, that President Trump is talking about that's in process right now. In terms of budget pass back, or a budget proposal, we saw that a couple weeks ago that refers to President Trump's Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal that he is going to be releasing any day now to Congress, which sets in place the administration's priorities for the upcoming fiscal year, which starts on October 1. So, what Congress will do, will take a look at this budget proposal, and they'll either accept, reject or modify it through writing the appropriations bill process. So, that is a budget pass back fiscal year 2026 appropriations bill, which is totally separate from this reconciliation process that we're watching play out. And then finally, there's another term that's being used, it's called rescissions package. So, we are expecting a rescissions package to be released any day now, and this would need simple majority vote in the Senate, and it would try to make the DOGE cuts legal. So, we are going to be taking a close look at the rescissions package, so that would be formally and legally rescinding funds that Congress appropriated. So, a lot of moving things happening all at once, a lot of different terminology. So, just for listeners again, budget resolution, reconciliation, simple majority vote in the Senate, FY26 budget appropriations that needs 60 votes in the Senate, which means it needs to be bipartisan, and that will be voted on before October 1. And finally, rescissions package, simple majority vote in the Senate, formally rescinding funds that DOGE has cut already. And so we'll be watching all these trains as they leave the station.

JOHNSON: 

There's a lot of moving parts and a lot of trains moving from the station all at once this year. How does the ASTHO government relations team navigate all of this?

MULLEN: 

We've been navigating it to the best of our ability, and, in my opinion, very well. So, Catherine Jones and Catherine Murphy on my team, they are proactive lobbyists. They are working with new members of Congress, educating them about what public health is. They've been focused on meeting with appropriations committees to really focus on getting the message out about our members and the critical work they do. Jeffrey Ekoma and myself, we've been the reactionary part of the team, and focus on all of this breaking news that's been coming out from the administration, making sure our members have an understanding about what's happening on the ground, and then doing those more high level meetings with committee staff, with the White House, etc, to make sure we're telling the story about the impact some of these decisions have had recently on our members and the populations they serve, but overall, navigating it as best we can, it truly is unprecedented times, but I'm really grateful for the team and really grateful for our members' support during the past 100 days of the new administration.

JOHNSON: 

Thank you, Carolyn, we're grateful for the work that you and your team does every day, and we're grateful that you come here to tell us about it.

MULLEN: 

Thank you.

JOHNSON: 

More news you can use this morning, a webinar later this month will dive into administrative preparedness for public health emergencies. It will cover resources and innovative approaches. Make sure you sign up by using the link in the show notes.

Finally, today, a heartfelt congratulations to ASTHO's newly-elected Board of Directors Regional Representatives. Dr. Robert Goldstein, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health will represent Region 1, and Dr. Tao Sheng Kwan-Gett, chief science officer for the Washington State Department of Health will represent Region 10.

That'll do it for today. We're back Monday morning with more ASTHO news and information. I'm Summer Johnson, you're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review, Morning Edition. Have a great weekend.