NQF: NQF Launches Serious Mental Illness Action Team

The National Quality Partners (NQP™) is an active forum for members to connect, collaborate, and provide thought leadership on quality improvement strategies.

We are pleased to launch the National Quality Partners™ (NQP™) Serious Mental Illness Action Team to bring experts and recognized leaders together to improve the quality of care for the 10 million Americans who have serious mental illnesses. Individuals with serious mental illness include those suffering from mental, behavioral, and emotional disorders that cause functional impairment and interfere with major life activities. When left untreated, these adults experience poor health outcomes and high rates of suicide, homelessness and incarceration.

By partnering together and sharing best practices, the NQP Action Team will identify solutions to common pain points related to serious mental illness care. Through a series of web meetings and one in-person forum, the NQP Serious Mental Illness Action Team will foster collaboration and sharing to address gaps in care and inspire action in others.

In order to benefit from diverse viewpoints and experiences, the Serious Mental Illness Action Team spans organizations across all sectors of health care including, patients, caregivers, clinicians, physician associations, research groups, federal agencies, and more. NQP expresses sincere appreciation to the following individuals and member organizations for their commitment to improving serious mental illness care:

Magellan Health, Inc.
Karen Amstutz, Chair

Alliant Health Solutions
Tod Citron

American College of Emergency Physicians
Mike Gerardi

American Hospital Association
Caitlin Gillooley

American Occupational Therapy Association
Virginia (Ginny) Stoffel

American Psychiatric Association Foundation
Benjamin Druss

American Psychiatric Nurses Association
Lora Peppard

American Society of Health-System Pharmacists
Anna Legreid Dopp

AmeriHealth Caritas
Andrea Gelzer

BlueCross BlueShield Association
Anshu Choudhri

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Rebecca Bitsko

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Lauren Lowenstein

Health Resources and Services Administration
Alexander Ross

Henry Ford Hospital
Brian Ahmedani

IBM Watson Health
Lisa Patton

Institute for Behavioral Healthcare Improvement
Joyce Wale

Kaiser Permanente
Stuart Buttlaire

Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
Jonathan Brown

Merck & Co., Inc.
Rezaul Khandker

Mercy Health
Kyle John

MHA Keystone Center for Patient Safety & Quality
Laura Appel

Molina Healthcare
Deborah Wheeler

National Association for Behavioral Healthcare
Sarah Wattenberg

National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors
Brian Hepburn

New Jersey Hospital Association
Mary Ditri

Northeast Business Group on Health
Kathy Sakraida

Northeast-Caribbean AIDS Education and Training Centers
Francine Cournos

Northwell Health
Inderjit Singh

Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development and Commercialization, Inc.
Heidi Waters

Partners Behavioral Health Management
Jeffrey Sanders

Patient & Family Centered Care Partners, Inc.
Christine Abbott

Patient & Family Centered Care Partners, Inc.
Glenn Kopelson

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Kirstin Painter

The Joint Commission
Paulo Pontemayor

Veterans Health Administration
John McCarthy

WellCare Health Plans, Inc.
Marketa Wills

Learn more and sign up for project alerts for news and announcements about the NQP Serious Mental Illness Action Team to stay connected.