Zoe Frantz, CEO and president of the Indiana Council of Community Mental Health Centers sat down with Becker's to share projects she is excited about, her top priorities and what she sees for the future of behavioral health.
Editor's note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity. If you would like to contribute to our next question, please email hdesilva@beckershealthcare.com.
Question: What are your top priorities today?
Zoe Frantz: My number one top priority is advocating for the certified community behavioral health clinics, to build certified community behavioral health clinics within our state.
My second priority is 988 infrastructure for crisis response. The priority is to have an infrastructure in place where we will have someone for people to call, someone to respond and a place for people to go.
We advocated for a [phone service line] surcharge this session. Unfortunately, we did not get it, but several [states] haven't. For long-term sustainability of the services, we need a surcharge very similar to 911.
911 has that dollar surcharge to respond to physical emergencies. To me, as a lifelong mental health advocate, there should be no difference between a 911 physical emergency to a 988 mental health emergency.
It's parity, and it is making sure we have that long-term sustainability for services to be created.
Then, of course, workforce is the third priority. You can't do any of this without behavioral health workforce. So, [we're prioritizing] being intentional on focusing on removing administrative burden, increasing the rates for those to get paid within our community mental health structure, and improving the retention and general well-being of our mental health workforce.
Q: What projects or initiatives are you most excited by?
ZF: Definitely certified community behavioral health clinics. We have seen in other states such as Missouri, Kansas, even Texas with their own plan that they have done, where it has improved workforce significantly and as a result has improved access for those with mental health and substance use needs.
Q: How do you see behavioral health evolving in the next two to three years?
ZF: I see behavioral health evolving significantly, especially in the state of Indiana. We have been on a journey of changing our infrastructure, from the community mental health centers, which back in the 1960s, when JFK put that model in place, his vision was to get people out of state hospitals. We've done that.
But the piece that was missing in this evolution is that community based service — and that's where CCBHC comes in. It allows those services to meet people where they are at, whether it be school, whether it be jails, whether it be hospitals, and the piece of that in our system that has been missing is care coordination. So, connecting people with mental health and substance use and coordinating that care with other entities can only make our state stronger through that infrastructure.
I think we as an industry have done a great job at improving the stigma with those with mental health and substance use. However, demand is higher than ever; we in our state have seen an increase of demand of 60 percent. We have seen workforce vacancies go up by 20 percent statewide.
So, as stigma improves, and our workforce needs have gone up, it's really a call to action, both on a federal and state standpoint, to be able to fund that infrastructure for certified community behavioral health clinics and 988, so that we can meet these needs. We are blessed in Indiana with 24 phenomenal community mental health centers that stand ready to provide those services. We provide services to over 300,000 individuals in the state of Indiana — and we really look to our federal and state leaders to help us to continue to provide those services for the long term.