Breaking News

July 18, 2022 Beginning Saturday, July 16th, everyone across the country, regardless of where they are located, will be able to simply dial three numbers, 988, to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (Lifeline), previously ...

July 14, 2022 In March of 2020, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) allowed states to request blanket exceptions to be able to provide up to 28 and 14 days of take-home methadone for stable and less-stable patients, respectively. This move aimed to f...

July 12, 2022 "Legislators looking to add more mental health professionals statewide have allocated a combined $9.62 million in the new state budget to expand training programs to meet the demand," as reported in NJ Spotl...

July 11, 2022 On July 6th, six U.S. Senators issued a letter addressed to President Joe Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Xavier Becerra, urging them to remove cannabis' classifi...

July 7, 2022 Currently, the federal public health emergency (PHE), which began in March of 2020, is still in effect. With the PHE comes additional flexibilities relating to Medicaid beneficiaries' monetary resources and their eligibility for Medicaid. During the PHE, no Medicaid benef...

July 6, 2022 New Jersey is preparing to receive its share of the $26 billion federal opioid settlement that was announced in March of this year. Of the $26 billion settlement, New Jersey is set to receive $641 million in...

July 5, 2022 The New Jersey Department of Human Services (DHS) has announced plans to provide organizations access to free naloxone for 2022 through the DHS Naloxone Distribution Program. This year, DHS, through a new partnership, will be able to deliver naloxone kits directly to Ne...

June 30, 2022 New Jersey's Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee and General Assembly Budget Committee voted yesterday on a $50.6 billion FY2023 budget bill, a record high and well above Governor Murphy's proposed $48.9 billion budget. Floor votes in both houses were to take plac...

June 28, 2022 Last week, Rutgers University President Jonathan Holloway announced the Rutgers Future of Work initiative, allowing for employees to utilize flexible work arrangements for a year-long pilot program, beginning on September 1, 2022. The announcement comes a year after Ho...

June 23, 2022 A bipartisan group of Senators released on Tuesday the text of a bill to combat gun violence, the "Bipartisan Safer Communities Act". The legislation would include state funding to implement "red flag" laws and enhanced background checks. The Senate voted in favor of...

June 21, 2022 NJAMHAA received confirmation from the Governor's Counsel that Executive Order (EO) 292 issued in April 2022, which extended all Administrative Orders, Directives and Waivers listed in the Appendix to EO 281, supersedes the expiration dates specified in statute (P....

June 20, 2022 As laid out in the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act of 2020, a new number will be available for people experiencing mental health crises to call or text, scheduled to be rolled out nationwide by July 16th. The new number, 988, is expected to be easier to remem...

June 16, 2022 On June 15, 2022, Governor Phil Murphy, Senate President Nicholas Scutari, and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin announced the expansion of the Affordable New Jersey Communities for Homeowners and Renters (ANCHOR) program. This expansion includes increased investment from ...

June 14, 2022 "A bipartisan group of senators announced Sunday that it had reached a tentative agreement on legislation that would pair modest new gun restrictions with significant new mental health and school security investments - a deal that could put Congress on a path to enacting...

June 13, 2022 Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R.2377, the Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order of 2022, that would allow families, police, and others to ask federal courts to order the removal of firearms from people at extreme risk of harming themselves or othe...

June 9, 2022 On October 1, 2021, rates for Day Services (i.e., Career Planning, Community Inclusion Services, Day Habilitation, Prevocational Training - Group and Individual, and Supported Employment - Group and Individual) were increased due to one-time funding appropriated to the Di...

June 7, 2022 In response to recent mass shootings, including that which took place in Uvalde, Texas at Robb Elementary School that claimed the lives of 19 students and two teachers and wounded 17 other people, communities in New ...

June 6, 2022 Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), announced a one-year extension to the time that states will have to use American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding to enhance, expand, and strengthen home-...

June 2, 2022 Yesterday, on the final day of Mental Health Awareness Month, the White House released a fact sheet highlighting the Biden-Harris Administration's strategy to address the national mental health crisis. The statement noted that the U.S. is facing an unprecedented mental...

June 1, 2022 The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has shared a variety of resources for SAMHSA Region II in the wake of the tragedies of Buffalo, NY; Uvalde TX; and the 211 prior mass shootings so far this year. Support resources following recent sc...