(MassLive/The Republican – Stephanie Barry) State Sen. John Velis has been appointed to a national task force on workforce mental health by a collective of state government partnerships.
Velis, a Westfield Democrat, was appointed to the task force by the Council of State Governments and the National Conference of State Legislatures in recognition of his leadership and work as vice chairman of the Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery Committee in the last legislative session.
“I am honored to represent Massachusetts on this national task force and look forward to collaborating with legislators across the country to address the serious mental health challenges our nation is facing,” said Velis, who helped usher the Mental Health ABC 2.0 Act into state law.
The act was designed to reform mental health care policies by removing barriers to treatment.
“These issues are especially prevalent in our workforce, where we see a shortage of behavioral health care workers and where we also see individuals with mental health conditions struggling to find employment. These problems aren’t unique to one single part of the country, and this task force is all about creating a policy framework to help states address these workforce gaps.”
The “Mental Health Matters: National Task Force on Workforce Mental Health Policy” is being convened today through Friday in Charleston, South Carolina, by the state partnerships in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Labor’s State Exchange on Employment & Disability. The task force is comprised of 40 legislative, executive, and judicial state policymakers and subject matter experts who have championed solutions and support for mental health, disability, and workforce issues, according to a spokesman for the senator.
The goal of the task force is to identify, discuss, and develop a policy framework to support job seekers and employees with mental health conditions, as well as address the behavioral health care workforce shortage. The SEED team will then produce a series of policy briefs based on the task force’s work to circulate across states and cities. Areas of focus for the task force include nondiscrimination in care, workplace supports, underserved racial and ethnic and rural communities, behavioral health workforce shortages, and state behavioral health resource systems.
The second conference of the task force will occur in the early spring. Velis added that he hopes to bring some of the best practices developed with the task force back to Massachusetts to implement in the new legislative session.