2021 IMPACT REPORT

Ending untreated mental illness and addiction in Oklahoma

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a drastic impact on the mental well-being of Oklahomans. Many of the leading indicators for behavioral health continue to worsen, exacerbating our state's underlying, pre-pandemic problems. The effects of the pandemic are particularly acute for Oklahoma children, who have experienced heightened trauma, increased social isolation, and rising levels of depression.

This issue has galvanized public- and private-sector leaders to improve Oklahoma's behavioral health outcomes with transformational action. The root causes, systemic issues, and barriers to treatment exposed by the pandemic require comprehensive, collaborative, and cross-sector solutions. Behavioral health is a science – the policy and practice transformations will be scientific, too.

Healthy Minds is at the forefront of this transformation, delivering both an understanding of the obstacles facing our state and the solutions to overcome them.

Since the start of the pandemic: 
‍
> 50% of Oklahomans experienced symptoms of anxiety and/or depression

> Suicide rates in rural Oklahoma increased by 27%

> Oklahoma's overdose deaths surged to near-record highs in 2020

Oklahoma has made significant strides in recent years toward ending untreated mental illness and addiction. In 2021, Healthy Minds worked with legislators, treatment providers, and community partners to further the transformation of mental health care in Oklahoma.

Proposed and helped pass three ground-breaking bills to increase access to care, including telehealth expansion and harm reduction

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Helped secure more than $12 million in new federal funding for behavioral health treatment in Oklahoma

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Launched a Mental Health Caucus in the Oklahoma Legislature to advance bipartisan policy solutions

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Published more than 20 pieces of original research to show how Oklahoma can recover from the pandemic's impact on mental health

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Mental health and addiction are bipartisan issues that affect every Oklahoman in some way. No matter your background or politics, whether you’re rural or urban, you’ve seen the devastating impacts of untreated mental health and addiction. This issue can – and should – unite us all.

Rep. Josh west

Oklahoma Mental Health Caucus founding co-chair

Advancing a policy agenda for better mental health outcomes

Mental and physical health care are inseparable and deserve the same urgency and prioritization in practice, funding, and policy. Fortunately, the political will to address Oklahoma's behavioral health challenges is stronger than ever before. The COVID-19 pandemic has emboldened Oklahoma legislators to address rising levels of depression, anxiety, addiction deaths, and childhood trauma. Building on significant progress made in 2020, the Legislature approved three bills proposed by Healthy Minds and several others we identified as key opportunities for the 2021 session.

Telehealth expansion
Meeting the needs of students
Harm reduction
State mental health funding

Read all of Healthy Minds' policy analysis

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Behavioral health affects all Oklahomans and the issues that matter to them, from the economy to public safety. By finding the gaps between systems and making new connections, Healthy Minds drives change across all these areas.

TRICIA EVEREST

Oklahoma Secretary of Public Safety
Healthy Minds State Policy Council member

Securing federal funds to bolster mental health treatment

Since its inception in 2019, Healthy Minds has secured nearly $24 million in new, accountable public funding for mental health care and substance abuse services in Oklahoma. In 2021 alone, we helped treatment providers win more than $12 million in federal grants and funding. The research, expertise, and partnerships cultivated by Healthy Minds are essential to implementing and winning these grants for innovative models of prevention and treatment, including:

Statewide access to child psychiatry

Just six of Oklahoma's 77 counties have a practicing child psychiatrist, creating a significant barrier to care for families in rural communities. Two federal grants totaling $4.5 million were awarded to Oklahoma entities in 2021 to expand access to adolescent psychiatrists via telehealth networks. The State of Oklahoma and Chickasaw Nation each won federal funding to operate these networks through 2026.

Healthy Minds played a convening and technical assistance role for the state’s project, which will be implemented by the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services and OSU Center for Health Sciences. This initiative was a primary recommendation from our research on expanding the Oklahoma's behavioral health workforce, as well as a key way to meet the increased demand for children’s services brought about by the pandemic.
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Help for families in crisis

Amid an unprecedented surge in youth mental health need, Healthy Minds worked with several Tulsa-area providers to win $7.5 million in federal grant funding that will divert children in crisis from hospital emergency rooms and allow for more targeted crisis intervention in school. In 2022, Healthy Minds will continue assisting treatment organizations in developing and implementing these new services.

Increasing law enforcement capacity

Law enforcement officers have been increasingly stretched thin transporting individuals with mental illness to treatment. Healthy Minds partnered with the City of Tulsa, Tulsa Police, and INCOG to use $312,000 in federal and local funds for a third-party service to transport individuals in police custody to behavioral health treatment. In 2021, the Oklahoma Legislature invested $2 million to replicate this transport model statewide with a proposal led and implemented by the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.
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$7.5 million
Amid an unprecedented surge in youth mental health need, Healthy Minds helped design programs and secure federal funding to support Tulsa-area children in crisis. Through cross-sector partnerships and dissemination of emerging best practices, Healthy Minds worked with several Tulsa-area providers to win multiple federal grants that will create new crisis response teams at Tulsa schools and a new front-door triage and assessment center for children and families.
$4.45 million
Two federal grants awarded to Oklahoma entities will help the state expand access to adolescent psychiatrists via telehealth networks. Healthy Minds assisted the State of Oklahoma and Chickasaw Nation with a successful federal grant application to operate these networks through 2026.

This initiative was a primary recommendation from our research on expanding the state’s behavioral health workforce, as well as a key way to meet the increased demand for children’s services brought about by the pandemic.
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$252,000
With rising rates of methamphetamine addiction in Tulsa driven by the pandemic, Healthy Minds facilitated a collaboration of public and private community partners to address the problem on a scale bigger than ever before. The Tulsa Methamphetamine Treatment Continuum includes an increased number of treatment beds at 12&12, one of the state's largest and most comprehensive addiction treatment centers; longer treatment durations; gender-specific treatment protocols; and workforce and sober housing support, among other evidence-based protocols.

In addition to multiple local funders and operational funding from the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, the City of Tulsa committed more than a quarter million dollars of its federal CARES Act funding for new staff positions at 12&12.
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The health of our workforce has become a top priority for Oklahoma business leaders. Healthy Minds provides a reasoned, objective voice in policy discussions about how to improve the lives of our fellow Oklahomans and ensure the continued economic prosperity of our state.

ROGER RAMSEYER

Vice president and Tulsa market leader, Cox Communications
Healthy Minds State Policy Council member

Building partnerships committed to a healthier Oklahoma

Healthy Minds coordinates and convenes cross-sector partnerships to elevate mental health and addiction policy in Oklahoma. From issue-based legislative coalitions to civic leaders passionate about improving their communities, these partnerships embody a core value of Healthy Minds: the solutions to our public health challenges will come from trust, cooperation, and evidence of what works.

Mental Health Caucus

Organized by Healthy Minds, the bipartisan Oklahoma Mental Health Legislative Caucus launched in 2021 with 35 founding members committed to advancing evidence-based behavioral health policy.

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State Policy Council

Healthy Minds' State Policy Council brings together high-level, cross-sector leaders to elevate mental health and addiction policy in Oklahoma. The council is staffed and coordinated by Healthy Minds, which benefits from key advisors with expertise and passion for improving the health of Oklahomans.

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Expanded CrisisCare Center

Healthy Minds convened a community partnership that led to Tulsa's first 24/7 "one-stop" for law enforcement officers transporting individuals experiencing mental health crises. Funded by the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services and The Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation and operated by Family & Children's Services at Tulsa's CrisisCare Center, the one-stop diverts people in crisis to treatment instead of jail and implements a key recommendation of the 10-Year Tulsa Regional Mental Health Plan.

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With the stress and hardship of the global pandemic, mental health and addiction issues have grown to levels we’ve never seen as a state. This impacts every issue we deal with at the Capitol, from education to health and criminal justice.

Sen. Julia kirt

Oklahoma Mental Health Caucus founding co-chair

Disseminating data, research, and best practices

Healthy Minds’ team of researchers, policy analysts, and systems experts publish dozens of papers, fact sheets, and issue briefs each year. This thought power is critical to understanding our state's challenges, as well as the opportunities for improving the well-being of all Oklahomans. In 2021, we published more than 20 pieces of original research about the state of mental health care in Oklahoma.

COVID-19 recovery

In 2021, we continued publishing the most comprehensive information available in Oklahoma about the pandemic's psychological impact on our state's children, families, and workforce.

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Crisis care for children

We examined Oklahoma’s array of crisis services for children and provided options for policymakers to ensure youth have access to the services they need, when and where they need them.

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Treatment provider workforce

This four-part series of research briefs examined Oklahoma’s behavioral health workforce, including recommendations for policymakers in response to COVID-19 and Medicaid expansion.

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Integrated care

Integrating behavioral health into primary care expands the ability of providers to detect and treat mental health conditions, preventing future mental health crises that cost Oklahomans’ lives and livelihoods.

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Read all of Healthy Minds' original research

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Through a needs assessment for Edmond, Healthy Minds has been tremendously helpful in focusing the direction and energy of our local group to determine how we can be most effective in addressing the mental health issues in our community.      

LARRY STEVENS

Edmond City Manager

Providing technical assistance and strategic planning

The policy and systems experts at Healthy Minds put our research into practice as strategic planning facilitators and technical assistance consultants for treatment providers, state agencies, and Oklahoma communities. We help these clients not only optimize the delivery of their services, but empower them as the front-line drivers of Oklahoma's mental health transformation.

City of Edmond

Healthy Minds conducted a collaborative, data-driven assessment for the City of Edmond to give leaders actionable insights on the community's mental health needs, resources, gaps and opportunities. The assessment identified existing and potential services and partnerships available to improve the well-being of Edmond residents. The assessment also gave special attention to Edmond's crisis care services, as well as recommendations for strengthening the community's response to people with mental health needs.

City of Edmond

Counseling & Recovery Services of Oklahoma

Counseling & Recovery Services of Oklahoma (CRSOK) is currently leveraging Healthy Minds' technical expertise for program enhancement and evaluation of Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) activities. A relatively new federal model for serving vulnerable populations, CCBHCs provide people with complex and serious needs a comprehensive array of services, all of which must meet the highest standards for care. In return, CCBHCs receive a higher Medicaid reimbursement rate and are recognized as best-in-class providers.

Counseling & Recovery Services of Oklahoma

10-Year Tulsa Regional Mental Health Plan

Initiated and funded by The Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation, this 10-year plan establishes a long-term roadmap for improving the behavioral health of the Tulsa community. Healthy Minds is the lead convener and coordinator for implementing the plan's recommendations. This has included consulting with Tulsa Public Schools on national best practices for school-based mental illness prevention, detection, and intervention, as well as providing technical expertise to community partners and higher education institutions in designing research, workforce, and treatment programs.

Tulsa equity assessment

City of Edmond Behavioral Health Assessment

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City of Edmond Behavioral Health Assessment

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City of Edmond Behavioral Health Assessment

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Healthy Minds' work is made possible by:

“Empowering and inspiring community members to improve their lives”

We work to end untreated mental illness and addiction in Oklahoma through policy and practice transformation

Healthy Minds Policy Initiative aims to fundamentally transform Oklahoma’s public policy approach to behavioral health. To do this, we advance a long-term policy agenda and help health care providers secure accountable public funding to implement best-practice treatment models. With a foundation of data and original research, we build partnerships of public- and private sector leaders to implement evidence-based solutions in communities across the state.

Our vision for a healthier Oklahoma

More Oklahomans' needs are met than unmet

59% of Oklahomans currently have an unmet treatment need

Childhood deaths by suicide or overdose drop below the national average

Oklahoma's childhood suicide and overdose deaths combined are 36% higher than the national average

Oklahoma's suicide rate drops to within 10% of the national average

Oklahoma is currently the sixth-worst state for suicide deaths

Oklahoma's drug overdose rates are among the best 25% of states

Oklahoma's overdose death rate is in the best third of states

Our strategies for a healthier Oklahoma

Establishing parity between mental and physical health in payment and practice

Integrating behavioral health in primary care

Implementing effective intervention in schools

Establishing parity between mental and physical health in payment and practice

59% of Oklahomans currently have an unmet treatment need

Extending providers’ reach via telehealth, training, and recruiting

Reducing barriers to intensive and diversion services

Oklahoma's drug overdose rates are among the best 25% of states

Oklahoma's overdose death rate is in the best third of states

We're committed to ending untreated mental illness and addiction in Oklahoma. We plan to pursue this vision in 2022 by:

We believe all Oklahomans should have access to the treatment they need, when and where they need it.

healthymindspolicy.org

Advancing a public policy agenda for mental health?

Mental and physical health care are inseparable and deserve the same urgency and prioritization in practice, funding and policy. Fortunately, the political will to address Oklahoma's poor mental health outcomes is stronger than ever before. The COVID-19 pandemic has emboldened Oklahoma legislators to address rising levels of depression, anxiety, addiction deaths and childhood trauma, with significant progress.

The Oklahoma Legislature continued this momentum, approving three bills proposed by Healthy Minds and dozens of others we identified as key opportunities during the 2021 session.

Expanding access to care

Telehealth expansion
Harm reduction
Removing barriers to substance use treatment

Mental health resources for children and youth

Better meeting the needs of students
Mental well-being curriculum in schools (HB 1568 and SB 9)
Teacher training

Accountable state funding for behavioral health services

Re-investing departmental savings