ABSTRACT
The New York State Office of Mental Health held the Best Practices conference in New York City to kick off the Winds of Change campaign to identify evidence-based practices for adults and children in New York. Office of Mental Health (OMH) applied and was accepted as one of eight states to participate in the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) and the New Hampshire-Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Center's collaborative national evidence-based practices demonstration project. Service providers and state officials alike repeatedly referred to the OMH's eagerness to "Medicaid" as many mental health services as possible through the late 1980s and 1990s. The tragic death of Kendra Webdale, a journalist and photographer, in January 1999, coincided with the OMH decision to embark on this major campaign that fundamentally changed the way New York mental health care providers would supply services and the way assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) was linked to assertive community treatment (ACT).
