Help Us Help You

We help support those struggling with mental health issues and substance use disorder, and those who support them. Please support us by attending our monthly meetings, joining our Facebook Group and signing up to join our email list.

We host monthly meetings from 9am - noon the first Friday of each month year-round unless the first Friday falls on a holiday. Meetings are currently held on Zoom. Post-COVID-19, we meet at 41 Anthony Avenue in Augusta Maine. We also have a phone-in option available for those who are unable to attend in person. Meetings will most likely resume when it is one again safe to do so.

Mission Statement

Our mission is to improve the state system of care for mental health and substance use challenges by magnifying the voice of the individuals with lived experience and their families, and by making specific recommendations for improvements as required by federal and state statutes. Federal Title 42 § 300x–3, State Title 34-B §3609

Vision:

The QIC wants every person in Maine to have access to the highest quality mental health and substance use services in an environment of respect and empowerment.

Values:

  • We are focused on improving the system as a whole (the mental health and substance use disorder system).
  • We believe in equal access to a fair system of high-quality services.
  • We respect all individuals.
  • We value diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.
  • We value input from all stakeholders.
  • We are especially interested in hearing, amplifying and acting on the voices of those with lived experiences and their families.
  • We earn trust through demonstrating integrity, passion, and commitment to all of our work.

About

The Statewide QIC was started in Legislation in 1995 to serve as the mental health and substance use block grant planning and advisory council for Maine. Meetings are held monthly in Augusta, typically on the first Friday of each month. Our Membership is a combination of youth, family, young adults and adults with the experience of living with behavioral health issues, providers of services for children, youth, family, young adults, adults and State of Maine employees from mental health, substance use, housing, corrections, data, education, labor and Medicaid.

Federal law requires that, in order to receive Community Mental Health Block Grant and Substance Use Block Grant funds, states must conduct mental health and substance use planning. In order to assist the State of Maine in that planning, the Statewide QIC participates in the following:

  • Reviewing the Mental Health Block Grant and Substance Use Block Grant Plans and making recommendations.
  • Serving as an advocate for young adults and adults with a serious mental health issue, children and youth with serious emotional disturbance, or other individuals with mental illness or substance use experience.
  • Monitoring, reviewing and evaluating, not less than once each year, the allocation and adequacy of mental health and substance use services within the State.
  • Increasing our knowledge of mental health and substance use services to provide feedback and suggestions as appropriate.

Executive Committee:

  • Diane Buffard, Chair
  • Liz Wing, Vice Chair
  • Sarah Ferguson, Secretary
  • Malory Shaughnessy, Treasurer

Committee Meeting

The Quality Improvement Council meets on the first Friday of every month from 9 AM to 11 AM and is open to the public via Zoom.

To join the committee meeting, please click the below button labeled "Join Committee Meeting."

For your convenience, the approved meeting minutes are listed below. For more information, please contact us. 

Response to the Lewiston Tragedy

The Maine Statewide Quality Improvement Council (QIC), the statutory advisory group for Maine’s
SAMSHA Mental Health Block Grant expresses our deepest sympathies to those affected by the mass
shooting in Lewiston last week.

The QIC is grateful to all first responders, health care workers, mental health service providers, Maine’s
DHHS, and Governor Mills for their quick and comprehensive response to this tragedy. The actions taken
by the people who staff these agencies and organizations have shown the solidarity of the “small town”
of the State of Maine.

We appreciate, too, agencies and organizations from outside of Maine reaching out and sharing their
expertise and support.

The QIC’s Vision wants every person in Maine to have access to the highest quality mental health and
substance use services in an environment of respect and empowerment. In light of the recent
heartbreak, we are doubly dedicated to our Vision.

The QIC wants to remind the community that the overwhelming majority of people with mental illness
will never become violent, and mental illness does not cause the vast majority of gun violence. In fact,
studies show that mental illness contributes to only about 4% of all violence 1, and the contribution to
gun violence is even lower. Suicide is the largest increased risk associated with mental illness and
accounts for over half of US firearms–related fatalities.

The QIC will continue to support the best practices undertaken by individuals and agencies that
receive funds from Maine’s SAMSHA Mental Health Block Grant, striving for the well-being of all Mainers.

Lewiston and Maine will remain strong.

Contact Us

For more information about the Quality Improvement Council, please contact us by email or phone.

maineqicchair@gmail.com

207-612-8996