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BRIEF: Rhode Island's chief mental health officer is nominated to top post by Trump administration

Providence Journal - 4/24/2017

April 24--PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Dr. Elinore F. McCance-Katz, chief medical officer for the Rhode Island Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities, and Hospitals, has been nominated to the Trump Administration's top mental health post.

President Donald Trump has nominated her as assistant secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use in the federal Department of Human Services, the White House announced Friday.

The nomination requires confirmation by the Senate.

McCance-Katz, who is also a professor at the Alpert Medical School at Brown University, arrived in Rhode Island less than two years ago after serving during the Obama administration as the first chief medical officer of the federal government's Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

The new post in the Trump administration was created through the 21st Century Cures Act, passed in November.

"We're waiting to see about the confirmation," Linda Reilly, a spokesman for BHDDH, said Monday. "There are a lot of people in the pipeline to be confirmed so we don't know where she is in the queue."

McCance-Katz can't comment on her nomination, Reilly said.

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(c)2017 The Providence Journal (Providence, R.I.)

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