Health/Mental Health

• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline – The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (formerly known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline) provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, across the United States. The Lifeline is comprised of a national network of over 200 local crisis centers, combining custom local care and resources with national standards and best practices.
• Advancing Data Equity to Improve Health Equity for People With Disabilities. Policy Brief (2023) (7-page PDF) – Policy brief by Michelle Fong, a 2023 NH-ME LEND trainee and MPH student at the University of New England. Data equity is vital to health equity for people with disabilities (PWD) and to powering effective and efficient agency- and community-driven action. Data biases lead to uninformed decision-making and resource allocation that create and sustain barriers to care for PWD.
• Core Competencies on Disability for Health Care Education (2019) (13-page PDF) – From the Alliance for Disability in Health Care Education, these core competencies establish the baseline expertise required to provide quality care to patients with disabilities.
• Evidence-Based Toolkits for Rural Community Health (2022) – Rural Health Information Hub (RHIhub): Step-by-step guides to help build effective community health. Resources and examples are drawn from evidence-based and promising programs.
• Health Resume (n.d.) (3-page PDF) – Developed by the Ray Graham Association and the Illinois Council on Developmental Disabilities, the Health Resume is a tool to facilitate communication between the patient and provider.
• Healthy Understanding of Our Bodies (HUB) – The Arc of Harrisonburg and Rockingham (VA) partnered with the Disability-inclusive Sexual Health Network (DSHN) and The Arc of Augusta to release a new resource for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). “Healthy Understanding of our Bodies,” or the HUB, is a collection of information, books, videos, teaching materials, and websites about sexual health.
• Helping People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Process Grief (April 2020) (2-page PDF) – Published by the Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities (NJ UCEDD). Professionals in the field of grief and loss suggest direct support professionals become familiar with the ways grief and loss impact people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). The accumulation of losses over a lifespan can cause serious health concerns if unacknowledged/ unsupported.
• HHS Child and Adolescent Health Emergency Planning Toolkit: Guidance for Addressing the Needs of Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (January 2023) (86-page PDF) – From the U.S. HHS, Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, this toolkit addresses the needs of children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN) in emergency preparedness, response, recovery, mitigation, and community resilience activities.
• “I Don’t Get the Care I Need.” Equitable Access to Health Care for Mainers with Disabilities (2023) (116-page PDF) – Disability Rights Maine (DRM), with funding from the Maine Health Access Foundation, conducted a research project that identified the barriers to accessing health care for Maine people with disabilities. Plain language summary (5-page Word Doc).
• Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Behavioral Health: Results from the 2021 and 2022 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health (2023) (16-page PDF) – The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA ) presents data on key substance use and mental health indicators by sexual identity and gender among adults aged 18 or older in the United States.
• A Look at Waiting lists for Home and Community-Based Services from 2016 to 2021 (2022) – Kaiser Family Foundation Issue Brief. Shortages of direct care workers may continue to create problems for states seeking to reduce the number of people on waiting lists.
• Maine AgrAbility Project – Helps owners, operators, managers, employees, and family members of farm, fishing or forestry businesses to work safely and more productively.
• Maine Pediatric and Behavioral Health Partnership – Online resource developed by the Maine CDC’s Division of Disease Prevention, Maternal and Child Health Program, to educate, support and empower pediatric care providers through training and ongoing web-based and telephonic peer-to-peer consultations with behavioral health providers.
• Maine Shared Community Health Needs Assessment (2022) – Published by the Maine DHHS, Maine CDC, reports are available by county and/or as a statewide report.
• Mind the Gap: A White Paper on Maine’s Missing COVID-19 Surveillance Data, How They Perpetuate Health Disparities for Maine Citizens with Disabilities, and What Can be Done to Increase Maine’s Public Health Data & Service Equity (2023) (28-page PDF) – A white paper by Michelle Fong, a 2023 NH-ME LEND trainee and MPH student at the University of New England. Equitable health data represents all populations and can be linked to their common characteristics. Maine’s Covid-19 data can be disaggregated by gender, race, ethnicity, and age, but not by disability status or type. It is an example of inequity in data collection, or a data gap, that prevents analysis of pandemic health outcomes for Mainers with disabilities.
• Plain Language for Public Health (2023) (9-page PDF) – The Public Health Communications Collaborative has created a new Plain Language for Public Health guide to support public health communicators in creating messaging to advance health literacy, build trust in your organization as a source of information, and promote overall community health.
• Practical Guide for Implementing a Trauma-Informed Approach (2023) (43-page PDF) – This Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)  guide updates and expands the discussion presented in SAMHSA’s Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach (PDF) resource from 2014. The primary goal of this guide is to provide implementation strategies across multiple domains based on the original publication.
• National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Maine – Through support, education, and advocacy NAMI Maine is dedicated to building better lives for the 1 in 4 Mainers who are affected by mental illness.
• National Institute of Mental Health: Brochures and Fact Sheets – NIMH offers brochures and fact sheets on mental health disorders and related topics for patients and their families, health professionals, and the public.
• Physician Practice Readiness Form – Caring for adult patients with intellectual or developmental disability (2021) (2-page PDF) – This form will help providers prepare for visits with adult patients with intellectual or developmental disabilities for a positive experience and to achieve the best outcomes for both caregivers and patients. Developed by the Maine Primary Care Association PSO, the Maine Developmental Disabilities Council and Nemours Children’s Health System.

Updated: 06/23/2023