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NAMI Arkansas Home Page

Free Teleconference on Military Stigma

The ADS Center of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) will hold a teleconference on "Mental Health for Military Families" on Tuesday, August 3, at 3 p.m. ET.

Military mental health was a major topic at NAMI's recent national convention.

In an opening speech, U.S. Representative Patrick Kennedy declared, "Every day in America, our military veterans are being held behind enemy lines."

A NAMI symposium broadcast live on C-SPAN also addressed stigma as part of a broader discussion.

"We're only going to see great progress when the civilian community starts paying attention," said Tom Tarantino, legislative associate for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA).

Photos of the Walk

This year, for the fourth year in a row, the First Lady of Arkansas, Mrs. Ginger Beebe was the honorary chair for our NAMIWalk.  She has posted photos from the walk on her website. Take a look!  Photos from this year's walk can also be found on our NAMIWALKS page, on facebook, and on photobucket.

NAMIWalks in the News

NAMI Arkansas' 4th annual NAMIWalk was Saturday, May 29th and KATV was there to cover the event! You can watch the videos below.

Health law gains acceptance in Arkansas 

Earnest Dumas of the Arkansas Times has written an article about what federal health care legislation means to the Arkansas government and the people of Arkansas. It means a lot of money, a lot of economic stimulus and a lot of health care, including substantial amounts for people who've been denied it. The article can be found  here.

AACAP Policy Statement: Family and Youth Participation in Clinical Decision-Making

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) released a policy statement in October 2009 on family and youth participation in clinical decision-making, if you would like to read it, you can find it  here.

From SAMHSA/CMHS Consumer Affairs e-news dated May 24, 2010

HHS Office of Inspector General on EPSDT

The HHS Office of Inspector General recently issued a report on Medicaid Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment entitled Most Medicaid Children in Nine States are not Receiving All Tequired Preventive Screening Services. The report is available at:

The nine states selected for review were: Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Texas, Vermont, and West Virginia.

Among the Findings:

• Three out of four children did not receive all required medical, vision, and hearing screenings.  Forty-one percent did not receive any required medical screenings.
• Nearly 60% of children who received EPSDT medical screening lacked at least one component of a complete medical screening.  Children were missing appropriate lab tests most often.

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  • All nine states reported strategies to improve participation in EPSDT and the completeness of EPSDT medical screening.  States identified at least one or three main strategies to improve beneficiary participation in EPSDT:  direct communication to eligible families, outreach, and incentives.

The HHS OIG recommends that CMS:

• Require state to report vision and hearing screenings.  (These reporting cells were removed from the CMS Form 416 EPSDT report about 10 years ago.)
• Collaborate with States and providers to develop effective strategies to encourage beneficiary participation in EPSDT screenings, to develop education and incentives for providers to encourage complete medical screening
• Identify and disseminate promising State practices.

If you are interested in getting updates about what is going on at NAMI Arkansas you can follow our page on facebook by selecting 'like' on our page or you can follow us on Twitter! We will keep you updated on our classes, support groups, events, and our annual NAMIWalk.

Arkansas Gets F for Mental Health Care

Decrease From Last Report Card; State Budget Cuts Threaten Recovery

Little Rock, Arkansas--The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) issued a national report card today that gives Arkansas an F grade for its public mental health care system 

The report is a follow-up to a NAMI report published three years ago to measure the progress of states in achieving the goals of a presidential commission that called for transformation of the mental health care system—which too often is fragmented, outmoded and inadequate.

In the previous report, Arkansas received a grade of D. This year it is one of 12 states that saw their grades decline.   The national average is D, remaining stagnant from three years ago. Six states received Bs. Six received Fs. No state got an A.

See www.nami.org/grades2009 for the full report.

“There’s not much to say about dropping from a D to an F,” said Kim Arnold, Executive Director of NAMI Arkansas. “We are at rock bottom. We need to be investing in change and moving forward instead.

“Clearly, our state has few of the moving parts for a proven, cost-effective mental health care system. Political leadership, investment, improved planning, and, lastly, action will be needed in order to improve.”

Arnold continued, “However, I do have hope for our state and our citizens. I know there is a strong desire for improvement in the mental health community. But, for that improvement to occur, we need desire and commitment from all.”

The report card is based on 65 criteria, including access to medication, housing, family education and support to National Guard members. It includes policy recommendations for federal and state leaders. State governments provided most of the information on which the grades are based.

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