News and Headlines
HOME AND COMMUNITY BASED SERVICES REFORM EFFORTS.
The Alaska Mental Health Board is partnering with the Divisions of Senior and Disability Services and Behavioral Health, and the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority, to develop reforms under the Medicaid 1915(i) and 1915(k) State Plan Options. The Department of Health and Social Services and its partners are designing and implementing reform measures to ensure that Alaskans with significant disabilities, including behavioral health disorders, have access to home and community based services and supports to prevent institutionalization.
Under Section 1915(i) of the Social Security Act, states can make home and community based services and supports available to people who do not meet the level of impairment that would require institutional care but who do need services and supports to remain independent. This will help people with significant functional impairments due to behavioral health disorders, brain injury, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, etc. to receive services before they become so disabled they require institutional care.
More information is available below. If you have questions about how Alaskans with serious mental illness could benefit from these reforms, call the Alaska Mental Health Board at 907-465-8920.
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Childhood Trauma Costs All Alaskans
What we experience as children affects us for a lifetime. The effects of childhood trauma go far beyond one child or one family, and can pass from generation to generation. Part of reducing the impact of childhood trauma in Alaska is getting educated:
If you or someone you know is in need of mental health services, treatment is available.
- Call 2-1-1 or visit www.Alaska211.org.
- Visit the online Mental Health Services Locator.
- Call the Alaska Mental Health Board at 1-888-464-8920.
- Call the 24/7 Treatment Referral Line at 1-800-662-4357 (provided by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration).
- Call the Alaska Peer Support Consortium at 907-258-2772 for information about peer support services in your community.
- Alaska’s Careline provides confidential 24/7 crisis support and intervention.
Alaskans can manage their emotional and mental fitness just like they can their physical health.
Learn about positive ways to improve and maintain your mental and emotional health from the Boards' Sound Minds in Sound Bodies campaign. Attend a training on how to identify signs of depression, how to reach out for support, and how to connect people to help.
Share how you are promoting personal and community mental 
wellness on our facebook page!
The Americans with Disabilities Act and Mental Health: Learn More, Be Empowered
Information and support for families of children and youth experiencing mood disorders: fact sheets, educational webinars, tools specifically for teens, support groups and more are all available.