Head Named Director Of State's New Long Term Care Office

June 19, 2006

Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) Director Janet Olszewski has named Michael J. Head as the new director of the Office of Long Term Care Supports and Services.

"Mike brings a wealth of experience to this newly created position in state government," Olszewski said. "Under Mike’s direction, the Office of Long Term Care Supports and Services will help to ensure that seniors and our most vulnerable citizens are protected and cared for throughout Michigan."

In June 2005, Granholm accepted recommendations from her 21-member Medicaid Long Term Care Task Force that called for the creation of the office. On the same day she accepted those recommendations, Granholm also signed an Executive Order that created the Long Term Care Supports and Services Office – which will assist in the development and implementation of policy and strategies for the task force recommendations.

The office will coordinate Michigan’s state-supported long term care supports and services efforts. The office will be part of the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH), which is responsible for reviewing and implementing the task force recommendations.

Since 2003, Head has led the MDCH Office of Consumer-Directed Home and Community-Based Services, which has served as MDCH’s Olmstead coordinator and manages several federal Real Choice Systems Change grant projects important to achieving a transformation in long-term care.

Head has more than 30 years of experience in the public mental health and human services field. He has served as a clinician, an administrator, a legislative specialist and as a leader in public policy and systems change at the state and local agency levels. He holds a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Michigan and a Masters of Social Work from Michigan State University.

Head began his career in state government as a mental health consultant to the Michigan Legislature in the 1970s and subsequently for former Michigan Governor William Milliken. He served as Executive Director for two Michigan community mental health programs, and was extensively involved in shaping policy for Michigan’s community placement programs and with the design and financing of Michigan’s community mental health system.

Beginning in 1997, he led Michigan’s Self-Determination Initiative, an option allowing opportunity for consumer/family control over services for persons with developmental disabilities, funded through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This effort culminated in the 2004 adoption of a system-wide requirement supporting consumer access to arrangements that support self-determination as a matter of state policy in the Michigan community mental health system. 

Head, 59, is a resident of Pinckney.

The executive order also created a Long Term Care Supports and Services Advisory Commission that will provide guidance and advice to the Long Term Care Supports and Services Office. More than 50 percent of the commission will be consumers of long term care supports or services.

Over the last four years, Michigan – under the Granholm Administration – has made considerable progress related to long term care issues.

In 2003, Granholm – with strong bi-partisan support – initiated a Freedom to Work “Medicaid buy in” program that allows the disabled on Medicaid to have a job without fear of losing their health insurance.

In 2004, MDCH – in full partnership with the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services – applied for and received a $5 million grant to strengthen and improve Michigan’s long term care criminal background check laws and to provide $1.5 million in additional abuse and neglect training to thousands of Michigan long term care workers.

In 2005, Granholm also announced a Jobs Today initiative to modernize 75 of Michigan's oldest nursing homes and replace them with new models that permit more privacy, dignity, and family friendly designs.

Granholm also created the Elder Abuse and Neglect Task Force to make recommendations to ensure that elder abuse and neglect – as well as financial exploitation – is dealt with in a forceful and effective manner.

In June 2006, keeping true to her promise of improving the state’s long term care system, Granholm announced four groundbreaking awards worth $34.83 million over two years for Long Term Care Single Point of Entry (SPE) demonstration sites in Michigan. The establishment of long term care SPEs also was a key recommendation presented to the Governor and the Legislature in the final report of the Medicaid Long Term Care Task Force.