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PUBLIC HEALTH

The NH Community Behavioral Health Association, representing the state’s 10 community mental health centers, joins with our mental health and healthcare partners in recognizing Lori Shibinette for her service as commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services.

The commissioner recently announced that she will leave at the end of 2022, and Governor Sununu now has the task of finding someone to replace her in leading the state’s largest and most challenging agency.

From day one, Commissioner Shibinette has been laser-focused on get ting people who are in a mental health crisis out of hospital emergency rooms and into appropriate and timely mental health care. She has worked to stand up new mobile crisis teams, create a new psychiatric hospital for children, and increase the number of beds available for children and adults. And she has done all of this during the most difficult public health crisis in our lifetimes: the Covid-19 pandemic.

Community mental health centers, our staff, our boards and the people we serve owe the commissioner a very large debt of gratitude for her dedicated work on mental health issues. We also want to acknowledge that she and her staff have been the voice of reason at the statehouse when misinformation about Covid-19, vaccines, masking and other critical public health issues has been spread during the past two years.

Because of the determination and hard work of DHHS, hospitals, community health centers, mental health centers and other advocates, we successfully pushed back many of the anti-public health, anti-vaccine and anti-science measures proposed in the 2022 Legislature.

As we approach a new legislative session and as a new state budget begins to take shape, it is critical that DHHS has a leader who promotes access to care, the implementation and expansion of evidence-based practices, the collection of data, and science, above all.

In the mental health field, we need a leader who understands the strength and effectiveness of a community-based system of care, who can address the workforce crisis with expanded funding for the State Loan Repayment Program, who advocates and understands the importance and relationship between

Medicaid rates, service access and a valued workforce, and who will address relief from administrative burdens to help us retain critical staff and optimize our teams to deliver clinical excellence to our respective communities.

As we think about how a new DHHS commissioner can best serve the state and its residents, let’s please build on the work that Commissioner Shibinette has done for the past 2.5 years in the areas of public health and mental health. We wish her all the best as we commit to continuing her efforts to improve access to care, maintain and support the community-based system of care, and adhere to science and truth.

Maggie Pritchard is president of the NH Community Behavioral Health Association and CEO of Lakes Region Mental Health Center.

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