Mental Health Advisory Council Adopts Priorities for WICHE
Mental Health Program
The Mental Health Advisory Council (MHOC) for the WICHE Mental
Health Program adopted a set of priorities to guide future
program focus. The priorities were established during strategic
planning conducted at the recent MHOC meeting in Washington,
DC on December 1, 2001. The priority areas are as follows:
1. Workforce Development - The program should focus on supporting
efforts to enhance the development of a competent public mental
health workforce in the West.
2. Knowledge Exchange - Initiatives should be developed to
support the bi-directional flow of information between research
and practice, to ensure that evidence-based behavioral health
practice evolves to meet the unique needs and settings of
the West.
3. System of Care - Efforts should focus upon and support
the ability to develop and sustain public mental health systems
that integrate the best practices of public health, for providing
comprehensive systems from prevention to tertiary care.
4. Rural and Frontier Behavioral Health - The program should
continue and expand its efforts to serve as a center of excellence
in rural and frontier behavioral health services.
5. Supporting the WICHE States - The program's core constituencies
are the public mental health systems of the West, and activities
of the program should focus upon being a resource to the state
mental health authorities of the WICHE states.
6. Western States Decision Support Group - Supporting the
WICHE states in their evolving capacity to effectively utilize
and manage data driven decision-making and measurement of
performance outcomes.
7. Cultural Competence - Continue the program's leadership
in defining and supporting the delivery of culturally competent
behavioral health care to the citizens of the West.
8. Terrorism - Assist the WICHE states in developing and
maintaining an effective system of response to incidents of
terrorism, bio-terrorism, and other disasters.
9. Tele-Mental Health - Provide leadership in defining the
effective use of telecommunications technology in providing
public behavioral health care.
10. Criminal Justice - Assist the states in meeting increasing
demands to address the behavioral health needs of adult and
juvenile justice and corrections systems.
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