map 

Identified communities for the Project

ketchikan 

Ketchikan Report

haines 

Haines Report

homer 

Homer Report

nome 

Nome Report

dutch harbor 

Dutch Harbor/Unalaska

Community Town Hall Project

The Alaska Mental Health Trust (the Trust) funded a Community Town Hall Project to be conducted by the Alaska Mental Health Board (AMHB) and Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse (ABADA).  This project resulted in more qualitative information on community behavioral health systems (different from performance based review processes and data collection of services rendered through AKAIMS)

The visits to communities were conducted by staff and board members of ABADA and AMHB, Division of Behavioral Health staff, and staff from the Trust.  The project has offered better involvement with communities, insight from around the state about actual needs, and information on what is already working in these rural communities.

The development of future programs and planning efforts will rely on information from communities: what is currently working and what needs are not sufficiently being met.  It is important to see how DBH programs function in communities.   Current data from AKAIMS and compliance reviews give information about programmatic efficiency and the impact of programs on individual clients, but does not address the broader question of community-wide behavioral health needs.  This is most significantly a problem in rural areas where service delivery follows many different models.

Information gained from visiting communities informs the Boards’ future advocacy efforts, budget and funding recommendations, planning, education, develop public input into public process.  This information will be used in the Comprehensive Integrated Mental Health planning effort, funding recommendation processes and ABADA/AMHB plans.

To access reports from community visits conducted click into links below each community picture on the left.

For more information contact:
Rebecca Busch
Planner
Alaska Mental Health Board and
Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse
907-465-5114
rebecca.busch@alaska.gov

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