February 2025 Update from BHAM - Behavioral Health Alliance of Montana

CCBHC Update:

In Mid-January, we found out that Montana was one of 15 the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grantees for another Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) Planning Grant! This is great news, and we look forward to supporting the State and our partners is working towards implementing CCBHCs.

Montana will have 18 months, until July 2026, to conduct their planning phase and prepare their application to become a Demonstration state. Out of the 15 Planning Grantees, only 10 will be selected to become Demonstration states.

2025 Legislative Session:

The 2025 Legislative Session is in full swing and it’s important that your voice is heard! There are many way you can participate, from simple to detailed and virtual to in-person, the options are concisely detailed on the Montana Legislature – Participate website.

In any virtual or in-person testimony, be sure to follow this similar structure:

“Chair and members of the committee, my name is [first name] [last name – and spell out your last name]. I represent [organization name and short description] located in [insert location in Montana]. I am here to [SUPPORT/OPPOSE] [House Bill/Senate Bill #] for [insert your reason]. Thank you for your time and please vote [YES/NO] on this bill.”

Tips:

If you’re attending in-person, try to get there early. The committee rooms can fill up fast and you may need to wait in the hall to testify if the room has filled up.

Be sure to keep your comments to around 2-3 minutes.

Be specific in your reasons for support or opposition to the bill.

If you are asked a question, start by addressing the chair and the legislator who asked you the question (Madam Chair, Senator NAME) and then do your best to answer the question. If you don’t know the answer to the question, say that you don’t know but will find out and follow- up with the committee (and then be sure to follow-up with the committee – you can ask how they’d like you to follow-up). Or if there is a colleague or someone else there who may be able to answer the question, you can recommend deferring the question to that person.

For both virtual and in-person testimony, be sure to stay around after you’ve testified, in case the committee has questions after they’ve gotten done hearing all of the comments. If you know you’re not able to stay, be sure to ask for permission to leave when you’re testifying.

Shout out to Catalyst Montana – who created a helpful video for navigating the Montana Legislature – Participate website.

Be sure to subscribe to BHAM’s Legislative updates, which get emailed out regularly. To subscribe, go to our website and scroll to the bottom of the page.
Watch or listen along with committee meetings to stay informed. Follow this link to do so.

You can also access Legislative Updates here.

Here’s some other helpful information for following along during the Legislative Session:

The Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) posts all of their handouts and presentations here, which has a ton of really educational and interesting information.