NMHA’s Campaign to Promote a Quality Healthcare System

Now is a crucial time for the consumer advocacy movement to mobilize as a public voice challenging proposed cuts to the scope of mental health care services, to articulate consumer-focused approaches to health care reform, and to evaluate the impact of policy choices on the access and quality of care on the people receiving those services?

NMHA is starting a critically important campaign to articulate a vision of a quality healthcare system for people across disabilities, racial and ethnic backgrounds, and across income levels. We invite you to join us in this discussion as we seek to work with consumers, advocates, researchers, the business community, and policymakers as we work to identify concrete solutions for positive change.

This portion of the NMHA website will be devoted to resources and materials related to NMHA’s Campaign to Promote a Quality Based Healthcare system, including information on evidence-based practices, evidence-based medicine, and new NMHA research and advocacy initiatives.

• Evidence Based Medicine Resources
• A New Vision of a Quality Health Care System
• Evaluating the Impact of Public Policy

Evidence Based Medicine Resources

The National Mental Health Association is committed to promoting the appropriate use of medications for all illnesses, including mental illnesses. NMHA subscribes to the common definition of evidence based medicine as the integration of the best research evidence with clinician expertise and patient values, and has grave concerns about public policies and protocols that fail to account for this definition. Below please find links to more information on major research findings on the effectiveness of mental health medications as well as issue briefs on EBM more broadly.

National Working Group on Evidence Based Healthcare
The National Working Group on Evidence Based Healthcare represents key stakeholders committed to promoting accurate and appropriate evidence-based policies and practices that improve the quality of healthcare services in the United States. We are dedicated to healthcare that relies on the most up-to-date research, clinician expertise, and patient values. Through education and advocacy, the working group seeks to:

1. Communicate and inform other stakeholders, policymakers and the public about the importance of and appropriate use of evidence-based healthcare in public policy decisions.
2. Establish a forum for information and resource exchange on public policy trends around evidence-based healthcare (EBH).
3. Advocate for transparency and inclusion of all stakeholders in evidence based policies and decisions, and to advocate for a broad definition of evidence in making these decisions.
4. Develop consensus for common principles on evidence-based healthcare.

For more information on this initiative, please contact us at shcrinfo@nmha.org.

National Initiatives on Evidence Based Medicine

• Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Evidence Based Medicine. The Institute of Medicine is convening a Roundtable on Evidence-based Medicine that brings together stakeholders from multiple sectors--patients, health providers, payers, employers, manufacturers, policy makers, and researchers--to meet and discuss the ways in which collaborative work might help generate better and more timely information on which to base clinical decisions. Initial meetings planned for early 2006.

• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Effective Healthcare Program. Initial work in the program originates from Section 1013 of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (MMA) of 2003. Section 1013 authorizes AHRQ to conduct and support research with a focus on outcomes, comparative clinical effectiveness, and appropriateness of pharmaceuticals, devices, and health care services.

• Issue Brief on the Oregon Center for Evidence Based Practice’s Drug Effectiveness Review Project (2003) pdf

New Studies Related to Effectiveness of Mental Health Medications

• Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness (CATIE) Study
  
  
• NMHA Issue Brief Series on CATIE:
  • The CATIE Study: Frequently Asked Questions
  • The CATIE Study: Fast Facts
  • The CATIE Study: Separating Fact from Fiction
  • The CATIE Study: Issue for Advocates
  • NMHA Press Release on CATIE
    
    
• Should the CATIE Study be a Wake-Up Call? By Mark Ragins, MD, NMHA of Los Angeles County
• Still Not Happy with CATIE By Mark Ragins, MD, NMHA of Los Angeles County
  
  
• Sequenced Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) Study
  • NMHA Press Relase on STAR*D
  • NMHA Fact Sheet on STAR*D
  • NMHA Press Release on STAR*D Phase II Results
    
    
• Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD)
  

top

A New Vision of a Quality Health Care System

In 2001, the Institute of Medicine published, Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century, which articulated the need for a fundamental transformation of the United States Healthcare System. As part of that report, the IOM identified six aims for a quality healthcare system: Safe, Effective, Patient-centered, Timely, Efficient, and Equitable .

In 2005, the Institute of Medicine released a follow-up report, Improving the Quality of Health Care for Mental and Substance-Use Conditions: Quality Chasm Series by the “Committee on Crossing the Quality Chasm: Adaptation to Mental Health and Addictive Disorders, which addresses how to apply these recommendations to the mental health and substance-use fields. Both of these documents provide important frameworks for the consumer advocacy community.

• Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century, Institute of Medicine

• Improving the Quality of Health Care for Mental and Substance-Use Conditions: Quality Chasm Series, Institute of Medicine

top

Evaluating the Impact of Public Policy

Evaluation marks a critically important aspect of public policy so we can understand the impact of major public policy changes on the health of people impacted as well as the fiscal impact of these major changes. Examples of evaluation studies include:

• Turning The Corner Toward Balance and Reform in Texas Mental Health Services, Mental Health Association in Texas (March 2004)

  • Link to Press Release pdf
  • Link to Study Brochure pdf
  • Link to Full Report pdf
    
    
• The Effect of Increased Cost-Sharing in Medicaid: A Summary of Research Findings pdf, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (July 2005)
  

top

For more information on this initiative, please contact us at shcrinfo@nmha.org.

National Mental Health Association
2000 N. Beauregard Street, 6th Floor
Alexandria, VA 22311
Phone 703/684-7722
Fax 703/684-5968
Mental Health Resource Center 800/969-NMHA
TTY Line 800/433-5959