Road to Creating a Better Life in the Community: The 2012 ACMHA Summit

The just-completed 2012 Summit organized by ACMHA: The College for Behavioral Health Leadership was simply marvelous. Historic Charleston, with its diverse communities, served as an exceptional backdrop for a very spirited conversation. King Davis opened and closed the event in his inimitable way, with a carefully crafted mixture of professional analysis and personal family biography. From the listening and the conversation, two things became very clear: Communities are crucial to our health and our quality of life, and social support is the glue that links these life factors together. Going forward, it also became very clear that both ACMHA and the field have a major task to incorporate community dynamics, such as social supports and other social determinants of health into our health reform efforts. The 2012 ACMHA Summit was definitely a celebration of the Second Anniversary of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA), which occurred on the last day of the Summit, Friday, March 23rd.

The theme of the 2012 ACMHA Summit, “Healthy Supports, Healthy Communities” fits closely with the important finding that good health is related closely to the social support that one’s community provides. Social support is one of the social determinants of health—those positive and negative factors in one’s community that enhance or diminish one’s health status. Discrimination is an example of a negative determinant; social support, a positive determinant. The social determinants of health are recognized explicitly in the ACA because of its emphasis on disease prevention and health promotion. By 2020, an estimated 30% of US health care resources will be expended on these interventions.

After King Davis’ thoughtful introduction to the topic of community social supports, Summit participants subdivided into several simulated communities—urban, rural, workplace, faith-based, virtual, and school. Each community was given several questions to answer: What defines it as a community? What social supports would improve its health? How would one know that this had occurred? How does behavioral health fit into this community? Does it have a role in leading change? In fostering collaboration? Although the communities were being simulated, participants perceived correctly that these are the questions that will demand our attention as we implement national health reform. The community work was fun, informative, and sometimes blurred across the line from simulation to reality.

To underline the fundamental importance of community work, participants also heard from four exemplary projects that address social support and other social determinants. These included The Children’s Resilience Initiative of Walla Walla, designed to reduce adverse childhood events that lead to subsequent health problems; REACH US SouthEastern African American Center of Excellence for Eliminating Disparities Related to Diabetes and Its Complications, designed as a community intervention to reduce foot amputations of elderly Black Americans with diabetes; McShin: A Recovery Resource Foundation, designed to help others find and maintain recovery from substance use conditions; and Senior Reach, designed to provide care management, mental health treatment, and wellness services to older adults at no cost. Each of these initiatives is very impressive, and each reflects the passion and commitment of its originators. Such programs reflect our future. I encourage you to learn more about them.

As a very important feature of the 2012 ACMHA Summit, participants were very pleased to welcome eight new mentees to ACMHA’s acclaimed leadership program. These new mentees brought new and young eyes to Summit deliberations, and they sensitized more seasoned members of the ACMHA community to their new perspectives and issues.

King Davis concluded the Summit with a retrospective and a challenge going forward. He encouraged participants to reach beyond the narrow confines of behavioral healthcare; to engage the key issues in the ACA Supreme Court Case and in the 2012 Presidential Election; and to seek political office themselves. He closed by challenging the group to “Occupy Anything” that will address the health and community issues confronting all of us right now.

A delightful output from the Summit is the Road to Creating a Better Life, developed by the virtual community. It can be accessed at www.facebook.com/acmha . I encourage you to do so today.