Change is never easy, and transitions are rarely smooth. Michigan’s behavioral health redesign and Detroit’s upcoming mayoral shift both raise the same challenge: how to move through transition without losing sight of the people and communities at the center. This week we examine how the state’s redesign creates both risk and opportunity, why the next mayor must treat behavioral health as central to safety, housing, and jobs, and how providers and communities can help ensure these transitions strengthen trust instead of eroding it. Pull Up Your Chair & Let’s Start the Conversation.

CMHA Draws a Line Against State’s PIHP RFP, and “eliminates any doubt relative to CMHA’s firm commitment to halting the RFP process by nearly any means possible”.

The Community Mental Health Association of Michigan (CMHA) has made its position unmistakably clear: it opposes the state’s plan to competitively bid Prepaid Inpatient Health Plan (PIHP) contracts and is working “by nearly any means possible” to halt the process.

You can hear their latest views along with comments by Robert Sheehan from the CMHAM. MDHHS Director Elizabeth Hertel, and Daniel Cherrin in the August 22, 2025 MichMash Podcast.

In recent weeks, CMHA circulated two documents outlining alternative system concepts and values, prompting some to believe the association was endorsing a redesign blueprint. CEO Robert Sheehan in an August 22, 2025, email to its members (titled, Clarity on "Core concepts of future system design" document), clarified that the documents were not CMHA’s official stance, but rather a reflection of what other stakeholders, advocates, legislators, and MDHHS, might view as viable alternatives. “CMHA continues to vigorously oppose the Department’s PIHP RFP, and as you know, is working on a number of fronts, legally and politically, to halt this process.” Sheehan wrote to members, emphasizing the association’s strategy remains focused on stopping the procurement outright and preserving the current public carve-out model.

That position, however, does not reflect the full reality facing community providers. The RFP is active, timelines are moving, and the Department is committed to transforming the system. While politically, PIHPs are working to enrage their network by focusing on issues privatization and lack of local control, their arguments are not accurate and passing out the Governor’s telephone number is not helpful to their position.  

At the same time, providers cannot afford to sit on the sidelines while others dictate the rules of engagement. The risk now is that same PIHPs that are waging political campaigns against the RFP and evaluating litigation to stop it also are figuring out how they can apply to be the PIHP for their region and reman the CMHSP by absorbing the services of providers in their network and pressure their staff into working for them. Providers should also be concerned when their funder asks them for a letter of support for their proposal.

From the provider perspective, the focus is less on debating whether the RFP should exist and more on ensuring accountability, transparency, and stability as it unfolds. Providers want clear guardrails that prevent PIHPs from leveraging their dual role to seize contracts or services, and they are pressing for oversight mechanisms that protect against disruption in care. At the same time, they see opportunity in standardizing contracts, improving payment transparency, and directing resources where they matter most — into care, not bureaucracy.

The divide between CMHA’s defensive stance and the providers’ pragmatic approach reflects two competing realities: one rooted in stopping change, the other in shaping it. What providers know, and what state leaders must hear, is that transformation will succeed only if it strengthens local capacity, reduces administrative burden, and ensures funds flow directly to the people and communities who need care most.

Read more on the County’s wanting to maintain the status quo,

Want to learn more about the State’s Plans

Behavioral Health at the Core of Detroit’s Next Administration

In just a few months, Detroit voters will choose a new mayor, and they will begin to establish their transition team. The conversation then will focus on her agenda—safety, housing, jobs, neighborhood development, and the city budget. Beneath each of these issues runs a common thread, behavioral health. Our work as community providers isn’t separate from the mayor’s agenda; it’s central to it.

DWIHN’s fate is at risk given the redesign of Michigan’s behavioral health system. That creates new complexity in how services are managed and how dollars flow. Add to that the longstanding overlap between Detroit’s own health department and Wayne County’s, and you have a city caught in the middle of competing systems. In this environment, piecemeal fixes won’t do. What Detroit needs, and what the new mayor will be searching for, is systems transformation.

This is where providers can lead. Community mental health providers see daily how mental health and addiction ripple through every corner of the city, from crime to housing insecurity, from workforce readiness to family stability. Instead of asking what the city can do for us, we should be asking how we can help the next mayor succeed. That means showing how behavioral health is not a side issue but the foundation of safer neighborhoods, vibrant downtowns, stronger schools, and more stable families.

An early win could be piloting creative models already working in other cities. For example, Baltimore has shown how crisis stabilization centers can keep people out of crowded ERs while connecting them to real treatment. Philadelphia has opened neighborhood-based recovery hubs where families can walk in for housing, addiction support, or counseling without waiting months. Cleveland’s citywide mobile crisis program demonstrates how trained behavioral health responders can reduce police workload and improve outcomes on the street. Each of these ideas works because they meet people where they are, in schools, courts, neighborhoods, and homes, and Detroit already has the infrastructure and partnerships to do the same. Done right, they offer the next mayor quick, visible proof that behavioral health can make the whole city stronger.

At the same time, we should be ready to help bridge divides between Detroit and Wayne County. Full consolidation isn’t realistic, and it risks dragging us into political fights. But targeted collaboration is. Providers can convene both governments around shared priorities, crisis response, reentry, housing navigation, so Detroit leads the innovation and Wayne helps scale it. That kind of partnership creates results without surrendering control.

And as we prepare for the city’s next chapter, we should also keep an eye on Lansing. Michigan will soon elect a new governor, and just like with the mayoral transition, we have an opportunity to shape the conversation early. Our experience on the ground, our willingness to lead, and our readiness to convene can make sure behavioral health is seen not as an afterthought, but as a central pillar of what comes next.

Our role in this transition is clear: be the convener, the strategist, and the storyteller. We can put solutions on the table, help the mayor implement early wins, and then carry the data and stories back to city hall to build momentum. This is how we move from talking about problems to shaping a system that works better for the people of Detroit.

Children

MDHHS Pilots Team-Based Model to Strengthen Child Welfare. Michigan is reimagining its child welfare system through a new team-based model that shifts from a single caseworker approach to coordinated care. MDHHS Director Elizabeth Hertel visited Allegan County this week to see the Children’s Services Administration (CSA) teaming model in action, where investigators, case managers, supervisors, and family resource staff now work together to address the complex needs of children and families. The model, already launched in several counties, is designed to reduce delays, improve permanency outcomes, build trust with families, and support employees through shared decision-making and apprenticeship-based learning. Part of the state’s Keep Kids Safe Action Agenda; the initiative reflects a broader effort to improve stability for children while strengthening families across Michigan. (Source MDHHS, Teaming model visit release.pdf).

Addiction

Rural Care

 New Clinics

Crisis Care

Skill-Building

Health Plans

Other Issues

Politics

Mike Rogers Banks on Trump Ties, Divided Democrats in 2026 Senate Rematch

Former Michigan GOP Rep. Mike Rogers is making another run for the U.S. Senate after narrowly losing to Sen. Elissa Slotkin in 2024, this time with a stronger start and the backing of Donald Trump. Rogers, who has embraced Trump’s economic agenda and secured his endorsement, is counting on retaining 85% of his prior supporters while Democrats battle through a crowded primary between Rep. Haley Stevens, State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, and Abdul El-Sayed. While Democrats aim to tie Rogers to the fallout from Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” and rising costs, Rogers is leaning on GOP unity and Trump’s turnout machine to chart a path to victory in a midterm year when fewer voters typically show up at the polls. (Source: Punchbowl)

In addition,