On September 29, 2020, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services released a letter with an update on the behavioral health system transformation efforts and the plan announced earlier this year to establish Specialty Integrated Plans starting in fall 2022.

Due to the challenges presented by COVID-19 and the economy, comprehensive system change has been paused at this time. Once the situation has stabilized, MDHHS will resume work on this initiative.

For now, the MDHHS is balancing crisis response with ongoing improvement.

In the coming months, MDHHS will continue to focus on providing support for the behavioral health provider network and for those in need of behavioral health and substance use disorder care.

Despite devoting time and resources to crisis management for the pandemic, MDHHS has continued efforts towards the following:

• Creation of MiCAL – a centralized crisis and access system to assist families in finding needed resources.
• Set up of new service delivery structures such as text-based counseling and crisis warmline.
• Development of a set of initiatives to better deliver mental health services for children.

Click here for the full details released in the letter.