Blazing a new trail for mental health consumers: community leaders in a rapidly growing Texas county work together to promote better care for people with mental illnesses.

The Texas Health Institute chose the Mental Health Committee as one of six community collaboratives in the state to receive funding through a five-year federal grant as part of a statewide effort related to mental health system transformation. This initiative emphasizes early intervention and service coordination across multiple state and local agencies (eight other states received similar funding). Plans include developing a comprehensive and user-friendly Web site detailing community mental health and social services resources and designing a secure, Web-based database allowing field personnel to access pertinent information when responding to crisis calls.

Therefore, the Mental Health Committee's process and commitment has resulted in an invested group of people committed to addressing the burgeoning concerns of people with mental illnesses in a rapidly changing environment.

At the time this article was written, Terri Couch, BSN, RN, MA, was Chief Operations Officer of Bluebonnet Trails Community Mental Health and Mental Retardation Center in Texas.

Reference

1. National Alliance on Mental Illness. Grading the States: A Report on America's Health Care System for Serious Mental Illness. Arlington, Va.: NAMI; 2006. www.nami.org/gtstemplate.cfm?section=grading_the_states&Template=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=63&ContentID=30998.

BY TERRI COUCH, BSN, RN, MA