Open Government: SAMHSA’s Progress in Key Areas
Transparency, participation, and collaboration: these are the basic tenets of Open Government. The Obama Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government, and SAMHSA has made significant progress toward that goal.
Following are highlights of SAMHSA’s work in several key
areas.
- Conducted comprehensive stakeholder outreach on the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including:
- The Health Reform Webinar Series, which covered health insurance exchanges, mental health parity, the pre-existing condition insurance plan, health homes, accountable care organizations, electronic health records, and primary care and behavioral health care integration.
- Bimonthly stakeholder meetings to review the progress of ACA implementation, including a coordinated communications strategy.
- Made data quality a priority by establishing Data, Outcomes, and Quality as one of the Agency’s eight Strategic Initiatives and creating the Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality.
- Initiated extensive public engagement around SAMHSA’s Strategic Initiatives.
- Engaged the public on the development of the Agency’s strategic plan, Leading Change: A Plan for SAMHSA’s Roles and Actions: 2011–2014.
- Convened public meetings that were broadcast live on the SAMHSA website.
- Solicited comments and ideas and received nearly 2,500 comments and more than 23,000 votes.
- Developed a robust digital engagement program.
- Established presences on four major social media channels—Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr—and manages an active community across these sites (see cover story for details about SAMHSA’s social media presence).
- Created a blog to provide an additional channel for dialogue.
- Provided leadership in the use of the new Challenge.gov platform by sponsoring two contests (What a Difference a Friend Makes Contest and the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Mental Health Promotion Campaign).
- Joined other agencies across the Federal Government who sponsored contests, including the U.S. Departments of Defense and Education, as well as other HHS agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health.
Open Government is an ongoing process. Please visit SAMHSA’s blog or Facebook page or send a tweet to provide your comments and ideas about how SAMHSA can help expand the spirit of Open Government in 2011.
Learn more about Open Government and read the HHS Open Government Blog.
Read the President’s memorandum on Open Government.