Sign up in support of SB1710 Arizona State Hospital (ASH), governing board, and governance, which is being heard on Monday, March 13th, 2023, at 2:00 pm in House Room HHR 4.
To request to speak, follow the process indicated in this manual RTS (azleg.gov)
Note: you must sign up for an account initially in person at the Capitol using the kiosk. After you sign up initially in person, you can subsequently submit comments and request to speak online.
The first Tuesday of each month from 4-6 pm Arizona time, except for holiday weekends, ACMI will have a featured guest that will discuss a relevant Behavioral Health topic; after the speaker, we will have discussions with attendees on current issues with the Behavioral Health System.
David Bridge is the Special Needs Program Administrator for the Arizona Department of Housing. He will talk about the H2O waiver which addresses housing for homeless and General Mental Health/ Substance Use (GMH/SU) and Serious Mental Illness (SMI) members. Also, what is the H2O waiver?
Alex Demyan, Interim Assistant Director, Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS), and Elizabeth da Costa, Housing Program Administrator, Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) will answer questions that were pre-submitted:
This is an important topic as we believe housing is an essential part of healthcare.
Topic: ACMI Stakeholder’s Meeting
Time: March 7th, 2023 04:00 PM Arizona
Every month on the First Tuesday until December, 25th, 2023,
April 4th, 2023 04:00 PM
May 6th, 2023 04:00 PM
June 6th, 2023 04:00 PM
July 11th, 04:00 PM
August 1st, 04:00 PM
Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.
Meeting ID: 863 1776 0372
Passcode: 795774
One tap mobile
+16699006833,,86317760372#,,,,*795774# US (San Jose)
+12532158782,,86317760372#,,,,*795774# US (Tacoma)
Dial by your location
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
Meeting ID: 863 1776 0372
Passcode: 795774 Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kc1xiBw0Jl
The first Tuesday of each month from 4-6 pm Arizona time, except for holiday weekends, ACMI will have a featured guest that will discuss a relevant Behavioral Health topic; after the speaker, we will have discussions with attendees on current issues with the Behavioral Health System.
David Bridge is the Special Needs Program Administrator for the Arizona Department of Housing. He will talk about the H2O waiver which addresses housing for homeless and General Mental Health/ Substance Use (GMH/SU) and Serious Mental Illness (SMI) members. Also, what is the H2O waiver? Alex Demyan, Interim Assistant Director, Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS), and Elizabeth da Costa, Housing Program Administrator, Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) will answer questions that were pre-submitted:
This is an important topic as we believe housing is an essential part of healthcare.
Topic: ACMI Stakeholder’s Meeting
Time: March 7th, 2023 04:00 PM Arizona
Every month on the First Tuesday until December, 25th, 2023,
April 4th, 2023 04:00 PM
May 6th, 2023 04:00 PM
June 6th, 2023 04:00 PM
July 11th, 04:00 PM
August 1st, 04:00 PM
Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.
Meeting ID: 863 1776 0372
Passcode: 795774
One tap mobile
+16699006833,,86317760372#,,,,*795774# US (San Jose)
+12532158782,,86317760372#,,,,*795774# US (Tacoma)
Dial by your location
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
Meeting ID: 863 1776 0372
Passcode: 795774 Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kc1xiBw0Jl
Dr. Christopher J. Smith is an experimental psychologist with expertise in diagnosing autism spectrum disorder and measuring associated traits. Dr. Smith oversees all diagnostic evaluations and assessments for our clients while also directing all internal and external research projects. Prior to joining us at SARRC, he worked as an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where he still maintains a faculty position. Originally drawn to study autism because of the complexity of the disorder, here at SARRC, Dr. Smith values the ability to work with clients across all age groups and engage in out-of-the-box research endeavors.
Here are the links to the slides and the webinar. You need to sign up for an account to access the restricted content. Accounts are free.
Autism in Adults Dr Christopher Smith https://acmionline.com/?smd_process_download=1&download_id=8870
Autism defined by Dr Christopher Smith
Please read the latest report on Reimage Schizophrenia: transforming how we are treated function and thrive.
Published from the Schizophrenia & Psychosis Alliance, the summary of findings published Feb 2023.
BREAKING! Click here to read our new Voice of the Patient Report (
https://sczaction.org/insight-initiative/pfdd/), which captures the powerful stories of people living with schizophrenia and those who care for them. The report summarizes the compelling testimony provided during our Externally-Led Patient-Focused Drug Development meeting on Nov. 2, and was submitted today to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The meeting gave our community a voice – and it was heard. FDA’s Dr. Bernard Fischer told us during the meeting that “the FDA recognizes that there is more work to be done to get better treatments for schizophrenia.”
We thank our meeting co-hosts, who joined us to provide a united front in the fight for treatment equity for people living with schizophrenia: American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Mental Health America, National Council for Mental Wellbeing and NAMI. And we are indebted to the people living with schizophrenia and their caregivers who participated in this effort and made their voices heard.
People with schizophrenia have the right to effective medicines – just like anyone else with a serious disease. We are working every day to make that happen.
Schizophrenia is a serious, disabling brain disease. While medical treatment for schizophrenia has existed for many years, these treatments are often ineffective and can cause debilitating side effects. The result: countless people with this severe brain disease are subjected to a trial-and-error approach, switching from one medicine to another in hopes of finding something that will curb what can be disabling and life-disrupting symptoms.
Many people with schizophrenia have yet to find a medicine that works for them — creating an entire population of people who cannot
work or live independently and can suffer devastating symptoms of psychosis that can lead to incarceration or homelessness. Just as with
heart disease, diabetes or any other serious illness, if schizophrenia isn’t treated properly, it can get progressively worse. With the goal of turning the tide and improving drug-treatment options for schizophrenia, people with the brain disease and their caregivers gathered virtually on November 2, 2022, to describe what it’s like to live with this serious disease and share their experiences with available drug treatments.
Participants not only pressed drug developers to intensify efforts to develop more effective drug treatments with fewer side effects— they also urged the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to allow broader access to the “last resort” drug clozapine, which many patients credited with restoring their ability to attend school, work and live healthy and productive lives.
The meeting, “Reimagine Schizophrenia: Transforming How We Are Treated, Function and Thrive,” was co-hosted by the Schizophrenia & Psychosis Action Alliance, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Mental Health America, the National Alliance on Mental Illness and the National Council for Mental Wellbeing as part of the FDA’s Externally-Led Patient-Focused Drug Development (PFDD) initiative. The FDA launched this initiative in 2012 to collect information about patient and caregiver perspectives on drug development — in particular, what people living with a disease consider to be meaningful treatment benefits and how they want to be involved in the drug development process.
Many people with schizophrenia have yet to find a medicine that works for them — creating an entire population of people who cannot work or live independently and can suffer devastating symptoms of psychosis.
A class action suit—Arnold v. Sarn—was filed in 1981 against the State of Arizona, alleging that the Arizona Department of Health Services/Division of Behavioral Health Services (ADHS) and Maricopa County did not provide a comprehensive community mental health system as required by statute. The case proceeded through the court system (slowly), and an agreement was reached between the parties in 2014, which resulted in a Stipulation for Providing Community Services and Terminating Litigation. There were other decision points made during this case, one of which was that the number of long-term psychiatric care beds available at Arizona State Hospital (the only hospital in Arizona which offers long-term psychiatric care) for Maricopa County would be 55 (for those committed under Title 36, i.e., civil commitment). This number, seemingly plucked out of thin air, is absurd considering the size of the population it serves (about 4,500,000 people in Maricopa County, so this equates to 1.2 beds per 100,000 available for long-term psychiatric care).
As you can see from the article by Research weekly, a publication of the Treatment Advocacy Center, the optimal number of long-term psychiatric beds available in any population should be around 60, with 30 beds acceptable as a bare minimum.
As an organization devoted to the care of people with SMI, ACMI is intent on removing this absurd artificial limit to bed capacity at ASH for those unfortunates who happen to live in Maricopa County, Arizona, one of the largest counties in the US, with the smallest capacity to serve people with this terrible disease.
Charles Goldstein, M.D. ACMI Treasurer
RESEARCH WEEKLY: Two New Studies on Psychiatric Bed Number Targets – Treatment Advocacy Center
RESEARCH WEEKLY: Two New Studies on Psychiatric Bed Number Targets
By Elizabeth Sinclair Hancq
(March 2, 2022) Two research reports on the optimum number of psychiatric beds have been published in the past few months, both of which validate the Treatment Advocacy Center’s recommendation for 40 to 60 beds per 100,000 population.
In this week’s Research Weekly blog, I will first review the Treatment Advocacy Center recommendations and then summarize the two new studies that support those numbers.
Treatment Advocacy Center bed recommendations
Treatment Advocacy Center published a study in 2008 that included a safe minimum number of psychiatric beds, concluding that there is “a need for 50 (range 40 to 60) public psychiatric beds per 100,000 population for hospitalization for individuals with serious psychiatric disorders.” This is considered a minimum number because it assumes the availability of good outpatient programs, including assisted outpatient treatment.
This recommendation was developed utilizing the Delphi method, a structured technique to develop a consensus from a variety of experts. Treatment Advocacy Center collected input from 15 experts on psychiatric care in the United States to inform the estimates. The experts were instructed to take into consideration a variety of factors that impact the need for psychiatric beds, including the number of people with serious mental illness who may need hospital care, the adequacy of community outpatient services, how long individuals usually remain in hospitals, short stay versus long stay beds, and how the psychiatric beds are financed.
RAND Corporation bed recommendations for California
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit and nonpartisan research organization that conducts research to inform public policy challenges. RAND was contracted by the California Mental Health Services Authority to conduct a research analysis to estimate psychiatric bed need in California for the next five years, including variations for types of beds and regional needs throughout the state. The results of the study were published in January.
The study authors first determined the current psychiatric bed capacity in California, breaking down the beds to acute and subacute type beds. Acute beds were described as those for higher acuity patients and shorter lengths of stay (days to weeks), typically utilized to stabilize patients. Subacute beds were defined as those used for individuals with moderate to high acuity needs but for a longer duration (multiple months).
They estimated the bed needs in the state using multiple methods. In one method, they convened a panel of technical experts, of which I was a member, to discuss estimates of bed need and the various factors that impact psychiatric bed capacity numbers, including how they are utilized and what types of patients they serve. Secondly, they utilized regional variation in rates of serious psychological distress to estimate how bed need may differ by region of the state. Thirdly, they computed the number of beds required by using a formula that includes how many beds currently exist and current bed occupancy rates, wait list volumes, average length of stay and transfers needed to higher or lower levels of care.
The RAND report authors found that California requires 50.5 inpatient psychiatric hospital beds per 100,000 adults, which is consistent with the Treatment Advocacy Center findings. The authors further break these numbers down by type of bed, suggesting that these bed targets include 26 acute beds per 100,000 adult population and 24.6 subacute beds per 100,000 population. Taking into account how many beds California currently has, the results suggest that California is short 1,971 acute beds and 2,796 subacute beds. In addition, the authors conclude that the shortage of psychiatric beds will only worsen over time, predicting a 1.7% increase in psychiatric bed need by 2026.
International Delphi Method
The other new research report on psychiatric bed supply need per capita was an international effort conducted by a group of researchers from around the world and published in Molecular Psychiatry in January. These researchers again utilized the Delphi method to reach a global consensus on the minimum and optimum number of psychiatric beds per population. The Delphia panel included 65 experts, including me, from 40 different countries. These included individuals from all six World Health Organization regions and those from high- and low- income countries.
The results of the Delphi process concluded that 60 beds per 100,000 population is the optimal number, and 30 beds per 100,000 population is the absolute minimum. A psychiatric bed supply range of 25-30 was considered a mild shortage, 15-25 as a moderate shortage, and less than 15 per 100,000 population as a severe shortage of psychiatric beds. The results from this international panel of experts are again consistent with Treatment Advocacy Center’s psychiatric bed recommendations.
These two new psychiatric bed capacity target research studies further validate Treatment Advocacy Center’s previous report on the subject, suggesting a given jurisdiction should have at least 40-60 inpatient psychiatric beds per 100,000 population to meet the needs of their community.
References
Elizabeth Sinclair Hancq is the director of research at Treatment Advocacy Center.
To receive Research Weekly directly in your email inbox on a weekly basis, click here
Research Weekly is a summary published as a public service of the Treatment Advocacy Center and does not necessarily reflect the findings or positions of the organization or its staff. Full access to research summarized may require a fee or paid subscription to the publications.
What will it take for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to realize that an amendment is needed? The cost to society of not providing care and treatment results in the use of emergency rooms, fire and police resources, and public community environments. It comes with a high price tag and dismal results. Refer to the report “Housing is Healthcare https://morrisoninstitute.asu.edu/housing_is_health_care.
People with serious mental illness live in squalor and end up dead or in jail or prison, often for crimes of street survival. Mental illness is the only “medical” condition that is criminalized (e.g., while psychotic, destroying property while failing, or not complying with officers, vocalizing against perceived threats, and creating a public disturbance ).
Laurie Goldstein- ACMI Vice President
By Chris Larson | January 20, 2023
New York state hopes to strengthen and remake state-managed behavioral health care by getting around the so-called IMD exclusion.
It’s doing so by securing federal Medicaid funds typically forbidden from covering facility-based behavioral health through its latest 1115 waiver amendment.
On Jan. 5, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced New York applied for a waiver to Medicaid’s now-antiquated institution for mental disease (IMD) exclusion. New York has asked for federal matching funds for Medicaid to be allowed to cover IMD services to address serious mental illness (SMI), substance use disorder (SUD) and serious emotional disturbance (SED) for adults and children.
New York specifically is seeking matching funds to reimburse short-term inpatient, residential and other services for SMI and SUD by IMDs. The state is also applying for matching funds to help transition patients in state psychiatric facilities back to the community up to 30 days before their discharge.
“The objective of the demonstration is to transform the role of some state psychiatric inpatient facilities and [SUD] residential treatment facilities, improve care transitions and access to community-based treatment and support services, and improve health and behavioral health outcomes in individuals with chronic and/or [SMIs] by transforming selected (pilot site) state-run psychiatric hospitals, facilities, and campuses from long-term care institutions to community-based enhanced service delivery systems,” the 1115 waiver amendment proposal states.
Since the beginning of Medicaid in 1965, the Social Security Act forbade federal funds for Medicaid from covering treatment provided by facilities where 16 or more beds are dedicated to treating behavioral health issues of people aged 21 to 64.
This move was intended to prevent states from offloading state psychiatric hospital costs on the federal government through the jointly funded and managed Medicaid program. It was also part of a political and regulatory retreat from treating behavioral health issues in large hospital-like settings, with champions of that movement including President John F. Kennedy.
The movement is sometimes referred to as deinstitutionalization.
However, some see the start of the deinstitutionalization movement as the start of the present psychiatric bed shortage, even within the federal government.
“There’s been an understanding in the past several years that this lack of federal funding contributes to high levels of unmet need,” Madeline Guth, senior policy analyst for Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), told Behavioral Health Business. “The federal government has been providing some new mechanisms in the past few years for states to get an exception to this exclusion and get some federal financing for IMD services for non-elderly adults.”
The mechanisms, including the Medicaid 1115 waiver, allow states to secure some federal funding for certain IMD-related services.
Medicaid 1115 waivers, if approved by the federal government, allow states to experiment with different ways of implementing the Medicaid program.
There are three specific 1115 waiver benefit expansions that are related to behavioral health.
KFF, which tracks these waivers, found that 34 states have received approvals for an IMD exclusion payment exemption for SUDs. Additionally, 10 states have an exemption for mental health treatment, with 23 states having other exemptions for community-based health and behavioral health.
Recent presidential administrations have enabled ways around the IMD exclusion through the 1115 waiver.
In July 2015, the Obama administration allowed for 1115 waivers to “develop a full continuum of care for individuals with SUD, including coverage for short-term residential treatment services not otherwise covered by Medicaid,” which included the IMD exclusion.
The Trump administration announced in November 2019 that it approved the first-ever 1115 waiver related to IMD exclusion for SMIs and SEDs for adults and children.
Addressing the IMD exclusion did come up during the legislative work in 2022 that culminated in a sweeping behavioral health bill included in the omnibus funding bill passed just before Christmas. However, it was not included in the final bill that was signed into law on Dec. 29.
While New York’s latest 1115 waiver application is not unprecedented, it does reflect a two-for-one application for two IMD exclusion exemptions — including both SMI and SUD funding.
Further, the New York waiver and the other waivers tracked by KFF show that states of all political leanings seek to address mental health via innovations to Medicaid.
Medicaid is the single largest payer of mental health services in the U.S.
The first Tuesday of each month from 4-6 pm Arizona time, except for holiday weekends, ACMI will have a featured guest that will discuss a relevant Behavioral Health topic; after the speaker, we will have discussions with attendees on current issues with the Behavioral Health System.
Dr. Christopher J. Smith is an experimental psychologist with expertise in diagnosing autism spectrum disorder and measuring associated traits. Dr. Smith oversees all diagnostic evaluations and assessments for our clients while also directing all internal and external research projects. Prior to joining us at SARRC, he worked as an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where he still maintains a faculty position. Originally drawn to study autism because of the complexity of the disorder, here at SARRC, Dr. Smith values the ability to work with clients across all age groups and engage in out-of-the-box research endeavors.
Topic: ACMI Stakeholder’s Meeting
Time: February 7th,, 2023 04:00 PM Arizona
Every month on the First Tuesday until December, 25th, 2023,
March 7th, 2023 04:00 PM
April 4th, 2023 04:00 PM
May 6th, 2023 04:00 PM
June 6th, 2023 04:00 PM
July 11th, 04:00 PM
August 1st, 04:00 PM
Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.
Meeting ID: 863 1776 0372
Passcode: 795774
One tap mobile
+16699006833,,86317760372#,,,,*795774# US (San Jose)
+12532158782,,86317760372#,,,,*795774# US (Tacoma)
Dial by your location
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
Meeting ID: 863 1776 0372
Passcode: 795774 Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kc1xiBw0Jl
As we celebrate these holidays, let’s resolve to help the less fortunate. The article below, by Steve Twist and Seth Leibsohn, vividly describes the misery of homeless persons in our community. The most tragic are those who suffer from Serious Mental Illness (a pathological brain disorder) and co-occurring addiction and homelessness, living in our streets and jails. Approximately 30% of homeless persons and 30% of incarcerated persons are Seriously Mentally Ill.
Some are so mentally ill they believe their internal voices and delusions are real and, hence, they are pathologically unable to participate in their own treatment. Some seek relief with illicit substances, which exacerbates their illness and misery. To help these Chronically Mentally Ill persons, we need (a) more group homes with staff inside the homes 24 hours per day and 7 days per week, (b) well-regulated and secure residential treatment facilities from which residents cannot leave without authorization, to allow enough time for their treatment to become effective and (c) more beds and more accountability for care at the Arizona State Hospital, including removing the 55-bed limit on persons who reside in Maricopa County.
These three steps would provide better clinical outcomes at less cost than we now spend on recycling these persons through our emergency rooms, hospitals, short-term treatment programs, the streets, and jails, as their mental and physical health deteriorates.
We at the Association for the Chronically Mentally Ill (“ACMI”) welcome the attention Mr. Twist and Mr. Leibsohn bring to the problems described in their article. And we believe the three steps indicated above would be significantly helpful as to the persons who are homeless due to their Chronic Mental Illness.
Dick Dunseath, Board Secretary of the Association for the Chronically Mentally Ill, and father of an adult suffering with Chronic Mental Illness
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Phoenix neglects homeless, ignores rampant crime in ‘the Zone’ (azcentral.com) published Nov 17th 2022
Steve Twist and Seth Leibsohn
Within an area of central Phoenix, bounded roughly between Seventh and 15th avenues and Jefferson and Harrison streets, there is an ongoing dystopia. Euphemistically and casually, it’s referred to as “the Zone.”
This past week, an unborn child, at 20-24 weeks of gestation, was found dead in the middle of the street – burned to death.
There, nearly a thousand of our fellow citizens exist in disease, filth and crime. They are “living” on the streets, in makeshift tents and under tattered tarps, amid scattered garbage, human waste, chronic illness, drug paraphernalia, fire and fear.
These are the unseen, forgotten and abandoned. They are the mentally ill, walking the streets, talking to the air, battling unseen demons. They are the drug and alcohol addicted, so desperate for another fix or drink they will do anything except seek treatment. They are routinely victims of both crime and neglect.
No decent society abandons its fellow citizens to live this way; Darfur or Beirut is not our human or scenic aspiration. Not only is Phoenix guilty of shocking neglect of these most needy among us, it seems to be the policy of the city not to use the tools at its disposal to intervene as a force for help and repair.
Take the cases of crimes being committed against those in the Zone. Those living there are both routine and regular perpetrators and victims of serious crime. Not only are drug crimes the basis for regular escape and anesthesia, but sexual and aggravated assaults, robberies, arsons and thefts regularly define the contours of daily subsistence in the Zone.
In its 2020 report, Strategies to Address Homelessness, the city of Phoenix acknowledged, because of “Gaps,” “(t)he result is a fluctuating level of encampments along the streets, defecation in public – sometimes on private property, litter and debris, public drug use, lewd acts, theft and other property and violent crimes.”
It’s only become worse.
According to a recent complaint that area business operators filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, the city “refuses to enforce in and around the Zone quality-of-life ordinances prohibiting loitering, disturbing the peace, drunken and disorderly conduct, drug use, domestic violence, and obstructing streets, sidewalks, or other public grounds.”
So, the victims are abandoned.
Article 2 of our state constitution recognizes victims of crimes have the rights to “justice” and “to be treated with fairness, respect, and dignity.” These constitutional rights are promises made by the people of Arizona to every victim of crime, rights that city officials from the mayor on down have sworn to uphold.
Yet they have become a mockery as city officials refuse to enforce the very laws that have been written to protect victims from harm.
A model for others? Tempe parking lot will become affordable apartments
In this limited area of a few city blocks, in just the first nine months of this year, people have called the police for help more than 2,800 times. On average, in just a few square blocks, more than 10 people need help from the police every day.
Enforcing our criminal laws when a homeless person commits a crime against another homeless person does not stigmatize homelessness: it respects the rule of law and the rights of the victim essential to natural order. It recognizes a humanity that inheres in certain populations too many of us would, evidently, rather ignore. And these prosecutions can result in services being mandated for the homeless perpetrator.
But Phoenix is so wrapped in the dogma that pushes the failed policy of “housing first” and appeasement rather than treatment that it leaves the victims with neither justice nor respect. It leaves the homeless abandoned to the vicious cycle of desperation and misery.
The city has been justifying its shameless inaction because of a misreading of a recent 9th Circuit Court of Appeals case. But that case, Robert Martin v. City of Boise, noted, “Nor do we suggest that a jurisdiction with insufficient shelter can never criminalize the act of sleeping outside.
“Even where shelter is unavailable, an ordinance prohibiting sitting, lying, or sleeping outside at particular times or in particular locations might well be constitutionally permissible. So, too, might an ordinance barring the obstruction of public rights of way or the erection of certain structures.”
Start policing the Zone. Enforce the rule of law.
Start arresting those who break the law. Work with prosecutors and courts to screen for services and treatment. Start with a policy not of “housing first” but “protecting victims first.”
That is what a sane and civil community would do – before it spreads, and before more lives are brutalized and lost.
Steve Twist, a former chief assistant attorney general for Arizona, is the founder of the Arizona Voice for Crime Victims. Seth Leibsohn is a radio host at KKNT/960am and a senior fellow of the Claremont Institute, which advocates for limited government. Reach them at steventwist@gmail.com and SLeibsohn@salemphx.com.
The first Tuesday of each month from 4-6 pm Arizona time except for holiday weekends, ACMI will have a featured guest that will discuss a relevant Behavioral Health topic, After the speaker, we will have discussions with attendees on current issues with the Behavioral Health System.
Dr. Aaron Riley is a psychiatrist in Mesa, AZ, and is affiliated with Valleywise Health. He received his medical degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin and has been in practice 10 years. He also speaks multiple languages, including Spanish. He specializes in addiction and psychosomatic medicine and is experienced in depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, cognitive disorders, and behavioral neurology/neuropsychiatry. He is adept at using neuromodulation techniques like ECT and TMS.
Topic: ACMI Stakeholder’s Meeting
Time: January 3rd,, 2023 04:00 PM Arizona
Every month on the First Tue, until Dec, 25th, 2023,
Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.
Meeting ID: 863 1776 0372
Passcode: 795774
One tap mobile
+16699006833,,86317760372#,,,,*795774# US (San Jose)
+12532158782,,86317760372#,,,,*795774# US (Tacoma)
Dial by your location
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
Meeting ID: 863 1776 0372
Passcode: 795774 Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kc1xiBw0Jl
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