519: Framing Mental Health Connections, New Shutdown Deadline

ROBERT JOHNSON: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Friday, October 6, 2023. I'm Robert Johnson. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

MARY GILIBERTI: 

We're not going to trade our way out of the mental health and addiction crisis and the suicide numbers that we have.

JOHNSON: 

Mary Giliberti is with Mental Health America, talking about America's mental health crisis, and a new framework written to help state and local public health officials.

GILIBERTI: 

And those officials told us that many times even their partners in government don't know how public health can contribute. So, we're also hoping that it will give messages to public health to assist them in educating everybody in their orbit, both in government and in their community partners about how to use public health to make an impact on mental health and suicide prevention.

JOHNSON: 

ASTHO, the CDC, the Center for Law and Social Policy, and Mental Health America develop the framework Giliberti says there are two ways leaders can use it to help their communities.

GILIBERTI: 

One is to educate so with other agencies and government with their partners, generally speaking, to educate people on what is public health's role in the mental health and suicide prevention ecosystem. What is their role.

JOHNSON: 

The other, according to Giliberti, is about taking action.

GILIBERTI: 

We want them to use it to do that role right, to do some of the strategies. And we'll be working on additional strategies and tools for them for that, but we want them to obviously do work in public health around mental health. So it's twofold, educate others about the role of public health and actually start moving forward with this public health approach to mental health promotion and suicide prevention.

JOHNSON: 

You can access the framework and related documents using the links in the show notes.

The deadline to apply for ASTHO's Diverse Executives Leading in Public Health program is next Friday. Latoya Sahadeo directs the DELPH initiative and says it's a unique opportunity for eligible public health professionals.

LATOYA SAHADEO: 

The strength of the DELPH program is realized when public health leaders are empowered and are valued for their unique experiences and identities. The DELPH team has created a curriculum to incorporate a very intentional approach towards leadership development.

JOHNSON: 

Sahadeo says the program includes regular online meetings and up to three in-person gatherings.

SAHADEO: 

We go over various topics such as the history of the government and health equity, understanding you as a leader, executive presence, professional branding, and advocacy in the changing political climate. We also connect them with leadership models in the real world.

JOHNSON: 

Program candidates are public health professionals who self identify from underrepresented groups, including people of color, those living with disabilities, women, and LGBTQ plus individuals.

SAHADEO: 

Ideally, we will like mid to senior level public health professionals that come with a wealth of knowledge and experience that not only they can gain from the program, but also add to it.

JOHNSON: 

Applications are due Friday, October 13 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time. Begin your application now using the link in the show notes.

This time last week, it looked like the federal government was headed for a shutdown. But a last minute deal in Congress over the weekend kept agencies open and budgets intact for now. Carolyn Mullen tells us what's next, in today's Wiew from Washington, D.C. report.

Carolyn Mullen thank you again, as always, for coming on the newscast to talk to us about what's going on in Congress on Capitol Hill. It was quite a week for you.

CAROLYN MULLEN: 

Yes, it was Robert. Last week, I was here with you talking about a potential government shutdown. And I was 99.9% sure we were headed for a shutdown. And the funny thing is my husband said to me, "You know, I think McCarthy may have a trick up his sleeve. I don't think we're going to shut down." I was like, "Brendan, you're the only human being on the planet that doesn't think we're going to shut down." And lo and behold, he was right. So, speaker McCarthy surprised everyone in Washington, D.C. except for my husband, and produced a bipartisan continuing resolution to fund the federal government through November 17. In order for this bill to get passed, he garnered Democratic and Republican votes and then the Senate approved it and the President signed it into law so the government is open and functioning but as a result of that great compromise, speaker McCarthy is no longer Speaker of the House, as has been widely reported in the press and media this week.

JOHNSON: 

Yeah, it cost him his job as leader of of the House. And now everyone's asking what happens next with all of this.

MULLEN: 

The next steps are both the House and Senate are in recess right now. And they resume work next week. So the House has a plan to vote on the speaker next Wednesday. And as of right now, it appears Congressman Scalise has put his hat in the ring, and he is a member of Congress from Louisiana. At this moment, it's unclear if the Congressman has the votes to become Speaker of the House. And there will be a number of other Republican candidates that will also want to become speaker. So that will be something that we're watching next week. But the major problem here is that the House can't function without a speaker. And funding for the federal government runs out in 44 days. So we are very concerned about another potential government shutdown if these issues don't get resolved by November 17.

JOHNSON: 

Everyone listening just wrote November 17, on their calendar. So that's the new deadline. We'll all keep an eye on that. And we'll look forward to having you here on the newscast for updates as to how Congress is managing the budget process and whether or not we'll be right back in this same position four or five weeks from now. There were other things happening on the Jill, though. And before we go, I'd like to get a little bit more from you on another effort that was happening with ASTHO and the House Ways and Means Committee.

MULLEN: 

Yes, I want to give a shout out to our staff members, Alex and Jeffrey, who put together comments on the House Ways and Means request for information on rural health care. And the focus of our comments that we submitted to the committee was about our territorial members and the unique challenges they face on the geographic payment differences facility financing workforce, and also promoted some innovative models and technology. So we're proud of the work that we did on that RFI, but we also call the attention to RFI that we responded to in 2019 that the same committee issued, we said, hey, remember in 2019, when you ask these questions, here were our answers in 2019, about the problems that rural states faced with access to rural health care. So we resubmitted our comments on 2019. So we covered both the states and the territories to this request.

JOHNSON: 

That's an important topic. A lot of people are concerned about that. Hey, thanks for taking the time to come on the show to tell us what's going on here in Washington, DC.. We all need a little help with that from time to time and we know that this will not be the last time we talk about this.

MULLEN: 

Absolutely not. I look forward to understanding more what happens in the future. Thanks so much, Robert.

JOHNSON: 

All right, Carolyn, have a great weekend.

Finally this morning, unintentional falls are the leading cause of injury and death among older adults in the US. A new ASTHO report examines how state agencies can support vital community and clinical connections to better prevent falls among this population. You can download the report using the link in the show notes.

We'd also like to remind you to follow this newscast on your podcast player and ASTHO on social media. We're on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

That will do it for today. We're off Monday for the Indigenous Peoples holiday, but back Tuesday morning with more ASTHO news and information. I'm Robert Johnson. You're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great holiday weekend.