Mental Health director presents plan

by Mindy Aguon

Guam - Over the course of the next few months the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse will be working to regain full authority of the department.  Director Wilfred Aflague presented a six-point plan today for the transition from the Federal Management Team that included the hiring of licensed clinicians and the creation of an interdisciplinary team that would ensure each consumer will have a group of professionals to share the workload and identify the needs of each consumer.

Aflague says the implementation of the agency's fees will also be critical to operations.  "The fee schedule will enable our clinicians to be able to bill for services that we have not been able to do in the past and that will in turn will sort of help subsidize their employment, these clinicians and so that's really going to take off," he said.

District Court Judge Consuelo Marshall ordered that authority of the department be returned on December 3.  The court will hold a status hearing on January 14 to see how the department and DISID are managing and complying with the amended permanent injunction.