(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Ned Lamont is applauding the announcement today that President Joe Biden is nominating Dr. Miriam Delphin-Rittmon, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, to serve as assistant secretary for mental health and substance use with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In this position, she will be responsible for leading the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
Commissioner Delphin-Rittmon, a resident of Meriden, has served as the head of the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services since 2015. Prior to becoming commissioner, she served with the state agency in several capacities, including as deputy commissioner, senior policy advisor, and director of its Office of Multicultural Healthcare Equity.
In May 2014, she completed a two-year appointment under President Barack Obama as senior advisor to the administrator of SAMHSA, the same federal office that she has now been appointed to lead. In this role, she worked on a range of policy initiatives addressing behavioral health equity, workforce development, and healthcare reform.
“Commissioner Delphin-Rittmon has been a trusted advisor on some of the leading issues of our time, especially when it comes to the national impact of the opioid crisis and the growing mental health needs of our community following the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Governor Lamont said. “That is why it comes as no surprise that President Biden has selected her to bring her expertise to the national level. I am grateful to have had her partnership in our administration, and while it is bittersweet that she is moving onto this new opportunity, I know that those of us in Connecticut can continue relying on her to be a trusted ally to advance these critical issues that she has advocated over these many years.”
Governor Lamont noted that each year since 2017, the national nonprofit organization Mental Health America has ranked Connecticut as the top state in the nation for mental health services – a position that he credits Commissioner Delphin-Rittmon’s guidance for helping the state achieve.
“I am truly humbled and honored to have been nominated to serve in this role and thank President Biden and Vice President Harris for this privilege,” Commissioner Delphin-Rittmon said. “If confirmed, I look forward to joining the Biden-Harris administration to address the behavioral health of the nation during this challenging and transformative time. I want to thank Governor Ned Lamont for allowing me to continue to serve the people of Connecticut. We have done incredible work at the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services since I joined in 2015, and that’s due to the hard work and dedication of the employees who work on behalf of the individuals we serve every day. If confirmed, I will miss working with this exceptional group of professionals, but I am also proud to bring the lessons I have learned alongside this team as I head to SAMHSA.”
The Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services serves over 110,000 adults with mental health and substance use disorders. Under Commissioner Delphin-Rittmon’s leadership, the agency has significantly boosted its services addressing issues impacting women, the opioid crisis, and the behavioral health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A hallmark of her tenure has been her work fighting the opioid crisis. Commissioner Delphin-Rittmon expanded treatment options for those with opioid use disorders, using federal and state funds to expand access to substance use services and medication assisted treatments, and worked with other state agencies and private partners to make Narcan widely available across the state.
She served as co-chair of the state’s Alcohol and Drug Policy Council, which helped guide many of the interventions targeting the opioid crisis, including through the introduction of a recovery coach program that served as a model for federal legislation. The innovative program has been expanded to hospital emergency departments across Connecticut, along with various substance use agencies.
Commissioner Delphin-Rittmon has also worked to increase access to recovery services through the expansion of an access line that links persons in need of substance use treatment with those services and provides transportation to critically needed services, such as detox.
Governor Lamont will provide further updates regarding the leadership of the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services in the coming weeks.