NAPP Founder presented with ASA Hall of Fame Award
“The ASA Hall of Fame Award is given to an individual who has, through a lifetime of advocacy and leadership, enhanced the lives of elders through demonstrated leadership at the national level.
This year’s winner is Willard Mays, who truly exemplifies the spirit of this award.
Willard is a dedicated and tireless advocate for older adult behavioral health. His journey began in 1979 when he became the first Director of Older Adult Services at Indiana's mental health agency. His career of service and advocacy continued at the national level as he participated in the 1981 White House Conference on Aging, joined, and then chaired the Older Persons Division of the National Association of State Mental Health Directors, and chaired a national task force and worked with the Health Care Financing Administration on the implementation of the OBRA 87 (PASRR) legislation.
In 2000 he joined and then later chaired the Leadership Council of the ASA Mental Health and Aging Network, coordinating a joint effort between MHAN and the National Coalition on Mental Health and Aging that produced workshops and peer groups annually at ASA Conferences. He won the MHAN Award in 2005 and in 2019 the ASA Board of Directors named him a Lifetime Legacy Advisor.
After "official" retirement, Willard served on the Institute of Medicine Committee on the Mental Health Workforce for Geriatric Populations, on the Board of Directors of Mental Health America Indiana, and currently serves on the National Coalition of Mental Health and Aging Executive Committee.”
Letter to Dan Timmel from The National Association of PASRR Professionals
Dear Dan, since the inception of NAPP, we have been working with you, aka: “The Father of PASRR,” and have enormous respect for your relentless enthusiasm and energy for the work you do. You have been a mentor to us all.
Without your guidance and encouragement there wouldn't be a NAPP and PASRR wouldn't have progressed to the program it is today. Some of us go back to your keynote PASRR presentation at the Baltimore conference followed by your visionary brain storming in the impromptu meeting over lunch. Here the decision was made for the 2008 creation of NAPP. Your leadership and mentoring, along with many more post conference dinner meetings, has brought NAPP down many exciting roads.
The success of these National PASRR conference developments rested on your advocacy in realization of the advantage in the 75% PASRR match. PASRR dissemination and growth among states expanded through your vision of the PTAC and NAPP collaboration. Through your leadership, NAPP found a “niche” in educational initiatives to support PASRR quality and best practice development. Your insight, commitment and mastery of collaboration is key to the PTAC/NAPP partnership we hold today.
State by state, we join in your broader vision of PASRR; seeing that it is an integral part of a state's long-term care system. State thinking has broadened on how the enhanced Medicaid funding could be used to support PASRR activities. Encouragement for partnerships between state Medicaid authorities and other state entities including the health, mental health, and intellectual disability systems, and the Aging Network remains a key focus in support of PASRR growth.
NAPP is taking positive steps toward improving the organization in becoming increasingly independent, enhancing the level of professionalism, supporting commitment to collaborative initiatives in PASRR strategy, and knowledge transfer through NAPP. We are in the final development stages of the NAPP specialized services survey to gain data support in NF specialized services development. Our major goal is advancing your mantra that people with disabilities deserve to receive ALL of the disability-specific services they require to promote their independence and recovery.
We have joined in your remarkable career in making the lives of nursing facility residents with mental illnesses and/or intellectual disabilities better and increasing the possibility of recovery and being discharged or being diverted to more appropriate community-based settings.
You are in the thoughts and prayers of the NAPP Board and the larger membership.
Sincerely Yours,
On behalf of the NAPP board and membership at large
Lila Rajesh Tara
Ken Brandon Janet
Andrea Sam Willard
Nancy Dennis