State Sen. John Velis has been appointed to a nationwide process drive on workforce psychological well being by a collective of state authorities partnerships.
Velis, a Westfield Democrat, was appointed to the duty drive by the Council of State Governments and the Nationwide Convention of State Legislatures in recognition of his management and work as vice chairman of the Psychological Well being, Substance Use and Restoration Committee within the final legislative session.
“I’m honored to symbolize Massachusetts on this nationwide process drive and look ahead to collaborating with legislators throughout the nation to deal with the intense psychological well being challenges our nation is dealing with,” stated Velis, who helped usher the Psychological Well being ABC 2.0 Act into state regulation.
The act was designed to reform psychological well being care insurance policies by eradicating limitations to remedy.
“These points are particularly prevalent in our workforce, the place we see a scarcity of behavioral well being care employees and the place we additionally see people with psychological well being situations struggling to seek out employment. These issues aren’t distinctive to 1 single a part of the nation, and this process drive is all about making a coverage framework to assist states deal with these workforce gaps.”
The “Psychological Well being Issues: Nationwide Activity Power on Workforce Psychological Well being Coverage” is being convened at present by way of Friday in Charleston, South Carolina, by the state partnerships in collaboration with the U.S. Division of Labor’s State Trade on Employment & Incapacity. The duty drive is comprised of 40 legislative, govt, and judicial state policymakers and material specialists who’ve championed options and assist for psychological well being, incapacity, and workforce points, in line with a spokesman for the senator.
The purpose of the duty drive is to determine, focus on, and develop a coverage framework to assist job seekers and workers with psychological well being situations, in addition to deal with the behavioral well being care workforce scarcity. The SEED workforce will then produce a collection of coverage briefs primarily based on the duty drive’s work to flow into throughout states and cities. Areas of focus for the duty drive embody nondiscrimination in care, office helps, underserved racial and ethnic and rural communities, behavioral well being workforce shortages, and state behavioral well being useful resource techniques.
The second convention of the duty drive will happen within the early spring. Velis added that he hopes to carry among the finest practices developed with the duty drive again to Massachusetts to implement within the new legislative session.
