Mental Health is Everybody's Business

Conference March 28, 2024

Thank you for your constant and dedicated support of NJRC and our program participants. I am most grateful for your advocacy of our Annual Reentry Conference,

"Mental Health is Everybody's Business."

Our Conference revealed three basic needs, which must be addressed:

1) The need to establish a Health Information Exchange, which would document and track individual participation in addiction treatment and mental healthcare to ensure that physicians and providers have a complete and chronological history of a patient's behavioral health treatment;

2) The need for early and effective mental health diagnosis, whether in school, medical, or criminal justice systems, and the need for extended consistent, coordinated, and clinically driven treatment; and

3) The necessity for regional mental health "step down" units, which would provide physicians, police, and policymakers with a clinically driven alternative to jail for persons suffering from an episodic mental health challenge.

With the presence of Speaker Coughlin, Attorney General Platkin, Dr. Levounis, American Psychiatric Association, Dr. Nii Addy, Yale School of Medicine, Dr. Gloria Bachmann, RWJ Medical School and NJRC, and Commissioners Adelman and Mielke, NJRC intends to advocate for legislation, which drives these recommended changes.

Thank you once again for your steadfast commitment to those we serve.

Blessings,

Jim McGreevey