Month: September 2024

(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Ned Lamont today announced that he is nominating Kathleen Unger Holt of Mansfield to serve as Connecticut’s healthcare advocate.

Holt was most recently the associate director for the Center for Medicare Advocacy, a Connecticut-focused, national, nonprofit law organization that works to advance access to comprehensive Medicare coverage, health equity, and quality healthcare for older people and people with disabilities. In this role, which she held since 2014, she helped to lead the organization’s Connecticut and nationwide advocacy and outreach efforts, worked with lawmakers on the development of Medicare-related healthcare bills both on state and federal levels, and spoke as an advocate to raise public awareness about healthcare issues.

She was recommended to Governor Lamont by the Healthcare Advocate Advisory Committee, a group consisting of appointees of bipartisan legislative leaders. The committee recently completed a statutorily-required process to search for and evaluate candidates who could be nominated to the position, and then provided the governor with a list of its endorsed candidates.

“I am very excited that Kathy Holt has accepted our offer to serve as Connecticut’s next healthcare advocate because she has an incredible amount of experience, both here in our state and on a national level, in helping people access the coverage they need and advocating on their behalf, especially for people who are older, people who have disabilities, and people who frequently face barriers to obtaining health insurance,” Governor Lamont said. “Kathy is going to be an excellent partner for our administration, the legislature, and the people of Connecticut to help develop the policies we need to strengthen access to affordable, high-quality health insurance.”

“I am thrilled to accept Governor Lamont’s nomination as Connecticut’s healthcare advocate, working to ensure every Connecticut resident has the best possible access to affordable, quality healthcare,” Holt said. “In addition to assisting individuals obtain access to healthcare services, the Office of the Healthcare Advocate represents the collective voice of all Connecticut patients. I look forward to collaborating with healthcare providers, insurers, employers, other state agencies, and state and federal legislators to coordinate, deliver, oversee, and improve healthcare in Connecticut, making Connecticut a healthcare model for the country.”

Holt, who was raised in Newtown, began her career working with the insurance company Cigna in Bloomfield, where she developed insurance claim process improvement strategies. After earning a Master of Business Administration in healthcare management from the University of Connecticut, she helped protect patient rights and expand patient services as a hospital administrator, first at New Britain Memorial Hospital and then at Northwest Hospital in Seattle, Washington.

Upon obtaining her law degree from Seattle University School of Law in 1993, Holt became a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Seattle. In that position, she authored health law opinions, litigated in federal court, and served as an in-house attorney for administrative law judges.

In 1997, following the birth of her second child who was born with significant disabilities, Holt founded a Seattle-area law practice to advocate for the needs of older people and people who have disabilities. She led this practice until her arrival at the Center for Medicare Advocacy.

In addition to her professional work, Holt volunteers her time with several organizations, including service as chair of the board of directors for the Yale-New Haven Health System’s Lawrence + Memorial Hospital; as a member of the board of directors for Team Gleason, an organization that advocates for people living with ALS; as a commissioner for the Mansfield Housing Authority, which assists low and moderate-income families with safe, decent, and affordable housing; and as a public member of the Connecticut Teacher’s Retirement Board.

Holt will begin serving as healthcare advocate in an interim capacity effective September 30, 2024. At the start of the next regular legislative session, which begins January 8, 2025, the Office of the Governor will forward Holt’s nomination to the Connecticut General Assembly for its advice and consent. Upon being confirmed by the legislature during the regular session, she will begin serving a full four-year term.

Holt will succeed the most recent healthcare advocate, Ted Doolittle, who stepped down from the position last year to accept an appointment as a federal immigration judge. Since Doolittle’s departure, Sean King, who is the general counsel for the Office of the Healthcare Advocate, has been serving as acting healthcare advocate.

The position of healthcare advocate is responsible for serving as the head of the Office of the Healthcare Advocate, a state agency that provides free direct legal services, advice, and support to Connecticut families and businesses facing health insurance claim denials or other challenges with their public or private health coverage. Its staff helps resolve disputes with health insurers and seeks to protect consumers’ access to high-quality, affordable healthcare. In addition, the healthcare advocate serves as a subject matter expert on issues related to healthcare access and coverage, providing education and feedback to legislators, regulators, and other policymakers in support of consumer-supportive changes to laws, regulations, policies, and other systemic structures that make up the healthcare environment in Connecticut and nationally.

September is National Suicide Prevention Month – an important time to raise awareness about 988, a dedicated line that connects Connecticut residents to the United Way of Connecticut 211 mental health crisis services team.

ROCKY HILL (September 16, 2024) — When someone is in crisis, or worried about someone in crisis, 988 is the first stop. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, local help is available by phone, and since February of this year, by chat and text.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) launched 988 nationwide on July 16, 2022, as a new, easy-to-remember Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. United Way of Connecticut 211 has provided the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline service (now the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline) for more than 40 years, in close partnership with the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS). At the launch of the new three-digit exchange, 988, United Way of CT Crisis Contact Specialists assisted callers, but a national back-up center responded to chats and texts.

In its first year of 988 service, United Way of Connecticut 211 saw a 125% increase in suicide prevention and mental health crisis calls. In fiscal year 2024, their crisis services team answered more than 46,000 988 calls – an increase of 32% from 2023. The 211CT crisis services team answers 96% of all 988 calls in an average of five seconds – beating the nationally required 95% in 15 seconds.

“To serve more CT residents locally, especially younger people in crisis, we launched our in-state chat and text service on February 6, 2024, initially operating weekdays, 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.,” said Tanya Barrett, Senior Vice President of 211 Health and Human Services. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, local resource knowledge is a particularly important reason for contacts to be fielded by local crisis counselors. “As of August 1, we’ve now expanded our hours of chat and text operations to seven days per week. Between February and August, we responded to more than 1,100 chats and texts.”

United Way of Connecticut 211 reports that most of the chat and text interactions came from young, white females ages 13 to 25 who prefer text (70%) to chat (30%).

Barrett shares, “We know that many younger people are most comfortable communicating through chat or text. Responding to these 988 chat and text messages in-state is important because local 988 contact specialists know the specific stressors of our community and know the resources and supports best. That means the best possible help, most quickly, for those in need.”

“Whether people in crisis reach us through a phone call, a chat, or a text message – the support on the other end of the line, the backbone of 988 in CT, is our Crisis Contact Specialist team,” says Lisa Tepper Bates, President and CEO, United Way of Connecticut. “Our team consistently ranks among the top 988 call centers in the nation for speed-to-answer – we know that lives can depend on picking up the phone and providing support quickly.”

For the newly launched in-state chat and text service, the 211CT team maintains that stellar performance; they answer each interaction within nine seconds, and the interactions average 81 minutes in length.

DMHAS Commissioner Nancy Navaretta shares, “Our nation is in the midst of a mental health crisis, and here in Connecticut, we are proud of our comprehensive and continually evolving crisis services, including the 988 Lifeline. The simplicity of the 988 number has significantly improved accessibility for people of all ages who may be struggling emotionally or experiencing thoughts of suicide. The establishment of this service enables timely intervention. For every individual who dies by suicide each year, there are more than 300 others who seriously consider it but don’t take action. It is often the personal connection made with a compassionate and empathetic 211 Contact Specialist, whether through a call, text, or chat, that opens the door to a different, more hopeful outcome for individuals and their families.”

“Our Contact Specialists do heroic work every day: they meet each caller where they are, taking the time to understand each person’s needs, de-escalate the crisis, and offer options for support. Our staff are truly amazing human beings who handle difficult calls with empathy and compassion,” says Bates. “In FY’24, 92% of adult callers reported that their state of crisis diminished while on the phone with a 211 crisis specialist. There is no more important result for these callers.”

But when more intensive help is needed urgently, their crisis services team can connect callers to mobile crisis services – for adults as well as children. These teams of mobile crisis clinicians can go directly to where an adult or child in distress is located. This service is recognized as a best practice but is not yet offered in all states and communities. Connecticut leads the nation in providing mobile crisis support as part of its crisis response services continuum.

And while their crisis team will engage in active rescue when needed, United Way of Connecticut reports that less than 1% of all crisis calls this past year required escalation to 911 for active rescue or medical emergency response.

“At the end of the day, and though these statistics and metrics matter, they are just numbers. We know that what matters most is the individual person, the individual life, on the other end of the phone, or the other side of the chat or text,” says Tanya Barrett. “It is thanks to our partners in suicide prevention and crisis response at DMHAS, Department of Children and Families (DCF), and Department of Public Health (DPH), that CT residents have access to a wide array of services across the crisis continuum.”

If you are struggling, in distress, and need crisis and suicide prevention assistance, reach out to 9-8-8 for a direct connection to professionally trained and educated 211 Crisis Contact Specialists – who are doing heroic work every day.