- Paolo del Vecchio
- May 13
- 4 min read
by Paolo del Vecchio
Building a Recovery-Ready Nation: Fixing the Broken Behavioral Health System
Over 61 million Americans are in recovery from substance use and mental health conditions. People in recovery bring essential insight, knowledge and expertise on how to fix our broken behavioral health system and solve the opioid overdose and mental health crises facing the nation. Addictions and mental health are complex, chronic health conditions requiring comprehensive long-term supports to achieve and sustain recovery. We propose the following policy solutions for immediate action:
➔ Make Recovery a Priority: Recovery saves lives, families and communities by person-centered approaches to assist people in overcoming and healing from mental health and. addiction conditions to live independent, full, healthy, and productive lives. Behavioral health systems often neglect recovery approaches and focus on short-term acute care approaches that too often fail to meet long-term needs. It’s time to make recovery the overarching paradigm to improve the behavioral health of the nation.
➔ Empower People in Recovery & Families: People in recovery and family members must be meaningfully involved in all aspects of the planning, delivery, policy development, and evaluation of care. Federal, state, and local authorities must establish policies and practices to mandate such participation, including establishing Offices of Recovery led by people in recovery and family members. We also need improvements in informed consent, shared decision making, person-centered planning and self-management strategies to promote greater choice and optimize outcomes.
➔ Fund Evidence-Based Peer Support: Peer and family-provided services are a proven and cost-effective approach that improves care outcomes. Services, including peer specialists, family support providers, recovery community organizations, and peer crisis respites, require sustainable and expanded funding. This includes federal support for the Building Community of Recovery (BCOR), State Consumer and Family Network, and Recovery Community Services Program (RCSP) grants along with technical assistance efforts.
➔ Expand Essential Recovery Support Services: Recovery is supported by access to high quality health and behavioral healthcare and critical safety net recovery support services including housing, employment, education, and social supports. Access to Medicaid and other health insurance must be preserved. Efforts such as recovery housing, childcare, supported employment, recovery-ready workplaces, supported education, supported housing, and caregiving supports must be expanded with mechanisms to improve the coordination of care. Block grants must include set-asides for recovery support services that promote greater infrastructure of these critical services.
➔ Protect Rights and Promote Respect & Recovery for All: People with mental health and substance use conditions are vulnerable to abuse and neglect, victimization, institutionalization, coercion, insurance denials, privacy violations and criminalization. Protection and Advocacy programs must be fully funded and public authorities at all levels must improve oversight and processes to investigate and address rights complaints. Prejudicial attitudes (e.g., stigma) continue to be at the center of how people with behavioral health conditions are viewed and treated. Efforts, such as interpersonal contact approaches, must be expanded to promote respectful and accepting attitudes and behaviors. Mental health and addictions cross all societal boundaries and there is a need for targeted supports to those groups that are at most risk including youth.
➔ Use Technology to Increase Access & Promote Recovery: Technology must be leveraged to expand access and quality of care that promotes recovery as an outcome. This includes on-line peer and family support, self-care approaches, and information sharing so that individuals and families can make informed decisions. On-line tools must have clear guidelines and oversight for confidentiality and be monitored for quality.
➔ Improve Financing of Care to Optimize Outcomes: The financing of behavioral healthcare must be focused on funding access to quality care that measures recovery outcomes including health/behavioral health, housing, employment, education and social supports. Financing should be a driver to incentivize recovery through value-based purchasing approaches. Further, choice and control of financing should be expanded via self-directed care approaches for people with mental health and addiction conditions as has been accomplished with older adults, veterans and people with disabilities.
➔ Measure Quality & Focus Research on Recovery: To promote greater accountability and quality improvement, recovery-based measures must be implemented at the system and provider levels. National and state benchmarks and goals must be established that focus on recovery. Research must be expanded on recovery-based approaches at the National Institutes of Health and academia to better understand how individuals and families achieve and sustain recovery.
People in recovery from mental health and substance use conditions stand ready to assist in implementing the above policy imperatives. We can fix the broken mental health and addiction system, restore lives, strengthen families and improve our communities by building a recovery-ready nation. This is also an economic imperative as recovery gets people back to work or school, lessening the need for entitlements, and becoming productive, tax-paying citizens.
Please join us in bringing hope, healing and greater prosperity to so many in need.
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