SAMHSA’s Policy Academy for Service Members, Veterans, and their Families
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A new state-level opportunity is available to occupational therapy in mental health! It is a project to improve availability of and access to resources for those in military service, veterans, and their families.
In 2008, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) convened its first Policy Academy in partnership with the Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and others. The goal was to facilitate the creation of interagency strategic plans to ensure that behavioral services are accessible to military service members, veterans, and their families. Since then, a total of four Policy Academies have been held with leaders from 35 states, including Susan B. Parker, public member of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) Board of Directors, who was invited to participate in the 2011 Policy Academy. Recognizing the potential for occupational therapy to help meet the Academy’s goals, Parker has led AOTA’s efforts to develop a pilot initiative partnering occupational therapy practitioners with Policy Academy participants within the designated states.
Throughout 2012, AOTA led efforts to help members work within their states to support this project. Tina Champagne, AOTA’s Mental Health Special Interest Section (MHSIS) chair at the time, sent an appeal to AOTA’s Affiliated State Association Presidents to urge occupational therapy practitioners in the Policy Academy’s designated states to volunteer to participate in this project. In addition, AOTA produced a podcast led by Parker and Champagne, which is available here.
In response to this appeal, Cristina Tancreti and Michael Urban, members of the Connecticut Occupational Therapy Association (ConnOTA), met with Champagne and AOTA staff to develop a plan of action. Since then, the ConnOTA MHSIS has been brought on board, and Urban met with two Academy leaders who responded well to his outreach. Urban shared AOTA resource materials about occupational therapy’s role in mental health to help educate the other disciplines involved, as well as to promote referrals to occupational therapy practitioners in Connecticut. Urban was invited to further meetings and will be presenting with VA staff at the Connecticut Brain Injury Association Annual Conference. As he stated, “Our hope is to open the door to allow for networking between the VA and practitioners of any discipline to meet the needs of veterans and then see where things can grow from there to further include OT.”
We encourage more occupational therapy practitioners to get involved. If you practice in one of the states below, please contact Laurel Cargill Radley, MS, OTR, AOTA mental health practice associate, at lradley@aota.org or 301-652-6611, ext. 2903.
The states and territories participating in the Policy Academy are:
| Alabama |
Minnesota |
District of Columbia |
| Arizona |
Montana |
American Samoa |
| California |
Nevada |
Puerto Rico |
| Connecticut |
New Hampshire |
|
| Delaware |
New Jersey |
|
| Florida |
New York |
|
| Georgia |
North Carolina |
|
| Illinois |
Ohio |
|
| Iowa |
Oklahoma |
|
| Kansas |
Pennsylvania |
|
| Kentucky |
South Carolina |
|
| Louisiana |
Tennessee |
|
| Maine |
Utah |
|
| Maryland |
Virginia |
|
| Massachusetts |
Washington |
|
| Michigan |
West Virginia |
|
