The Michigan House and Senate voted early Friday morning to approve a major $76.9 billion state budget deal after Republican leaders reached an agreement with Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
The deal includes many investments in the social work workforce, new money for school safety and teacher recruitment programs, funds for mental health organizations, local government debt relief, blight removal, and more than $1 billion so-called pork funding for local projects. But it does not include any major tax cuts or rebates, despite a nearly $9 billion state surplus.
“Michigan has been long overdue for serious investments in the behavioral health workforce, and COVID has only heightened the critical need for enhanced mental health services across our state. This year’s budget shows a serious bipartisan effort to address these vital services in settings from schools, to hospitals, to our community mental health system,” said Duane Breijak, Executive Director of the National
Association of Social Workers - Michigan Chapter. “These investments will not only help create a new generation of workers through enhanced student loan repayment and the hiring of school social workers,
but will provide necessary community resources through the funding of crisis stabilization units, jail diversion support, and expanding the MiCAL support systems. NASW-Michigan
looks forward to continuing our work with Governor Whitmer and the legislature to ensure individuals, families, and communities have access to the behavioral health, economic, and social resources they
deserve and need to thrive.”
NASW-Michigan
invites you to join us on July 12 at noon for a statewide Policy Town Hall to learn more about our budget wins, other legislative initiatives, and let us know what you would like
to see the Chapter work on. Click here to register.
The budget, Whitmer said in a statement, “will grow Michigan’s economy and workforce, make record investments in
every student and classroom, protect public health and public safety, expand mental health resources, and empower working families and communities.”
"The budget has been a great start for funding social workers in Michigan. We are making huge strides as a few
items that we advocated for made it in this year. NASW-Michigan will continue advocating for investments in the social work workforce and we look forward to more progress soon,"
states Melina Brann, Director of Policy and Advocacy for NASW-Michigan.
The following is a brief list of budget line items that are relevant to social workers in Michigan.
$10 million to expand existing health care loan repayment program to include behavioral health providers (which includes social workers) to pay for education loans in exchange for workers going into areas in most need due to a shortage of health professionals
$3 million increase for Michigan Crisis and Action Line (MiCAL)
$5.1 million increase to fund the third year of the Local Medicaid Match Hold Harmless
$16 million increase to bundled Methadone reimbursements, which moves the rate to $19.00
$23 million for the Opioid Healing and Recovery Fund (part of Michigan’s opioid settlement agreement with pharmaceutical companies)
$2.5 million for First Responder Mental Health
$41 million and 87 Full-Time Employees (FTEs) for Hawthorne Center to increase capacity and increase reimbursements to private providers
(Capitol OutlayBudget) $325 million for a new state psychiatric hospital to replace Walter Reuther and Hawthorne. The facility
will total 260 beds, 45 more than the two facilities it will replace
$50 million for Clinical Community Mental Health Service Program (CMHSP) Integration Readiness Initiatives – to provide for grants to facilities and providers to integrate physical and behavioral health
$16.8 million for behavioral health home expansion from 37 to 42 programs and increasing from 40 to 49 counties.
$1 million and 8 FTEs to help with admission and discharge at state psychiatric hospitals
One time non-state access spending as follows:
$50 million for Pine Rest pediatric behavioral center
$45 million for Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network psychiatric campus
$30 million for establishing Crisis Stabilization Units
$11 million for University of Michigan Medicine children’s emergency psychiatry and day treatment
$10 million for Team Wellness adolescent behavioral wraparound program
$5 million for McLaren Northern Michigan adolescent partial hospitalization
$5 million for Bay County pediatric psychiatric inpatient
$3 million for McLaren EmPATH unit
$1 million for McLaren Greenlawn
$50 million for competitive pediatric psychiatric infrastructure grants
$5 million for Detroit Children’s Hospital psychiatric
$2.5 million for Insight Behavioral Health in Flint
$10 million to expand existing health care loan repayment program to include behavioral health providers to pay for education loans in exchange for workers going into areas in most need due to a shortage of health professionals
$5 million for 3 Wayne State-based workforce expansion programs as follows: Increase the number of mental health nurse practitioners
Train social workers in crisis stabilization management
Provide skills training to direct care workers
$1 million for gun violence reduction – providing training and technical assistance to local school districts for violence prevention strategies intended to reduce school violence
Finally, the Direct Care Worker Wage Pass Through was maintained at $2.35
Some of the eligible costs include SRO education, law enforcement coordination, and infrastructure
Section 97b – State Opioid Response (SRO) Grants
$25 million
Requires a 50% match locally
Section 97b/97f – Cross System Intervention
$15 million
Provides for a pilot program operated jointly between a research institution and a national law enforcement entity to identify and support middle and high school pupils deemed to be at risk for violence.
Section 31aa – School Mental Health Grants
$150 million
Grants are for a variety of school mental health endeavors, most especially the Student Mental Health Apprenticeship Retention and Training (SMART) program
Section 31o – Direct Hiring of School Mental Health Professionals and Nurses
$240 million
Boilerplate corrected to make it an annual program rather than a 3-year work project limitation
Section 31p – Transforming Research into Action to Improve the Lives of Students (TRAILS) Program
$50 million to expand TRAILS to districts statewide
TRAILS brings two evidence-based therapies, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness, into schools by training school professionals in basic techniques.
Section 31a (7) – School Based Health Centers
This line is increased by $25 million to $33 million
Prioritizes counties that are unserved
Section 31a(6) – Intermediate School District (ISD) Mental Health Support Services
This line is increases by $25 million to a total of $62.8 million
Section 97(f) – School Safety and Mental Health Commission and the Department of Education
$2 million
This money would allow the Department of Education to staff a Commission dedicated to School Safety and Mental Health
*all bolded items were related to requested items through Rep. Brabec’s budget amendment.
If you have questions about or want to be involved in legislative matters and advocacy, please reach out to our Director of Policy and Advocacy, Melina Brann, atmbrann.naswmi@socialworkers.org
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