Nine States Selected for Children's Behavioral Health Policy Lab

State behavioral health and children's welfare agency officials from Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin selected to participate

LANSING, Mich., Jan. 31, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Health Management Associates (HMA), in partnership with the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Casey Family Programs, and National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD), the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA), the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA), National Association of Medicaid Directors (NAMD), will convene a Children's Behavioral Health (CBH) State Policy Lab, Feb. 7-9 in Baltimore. HMA today announced the selection of nine states – Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin – that will participate in the policy lab. MITRE, which previously hosted a related federal convening, will also take part in this state convening.

This pioneering effort, made possible by the partner organizations, aims to convene state interagency teams – including child welfare, juvenile justice, behavioral health, Medicaid, and K-12 public education – to collectively strategize, learn from innovators in the sector and promote cross-system alignment to drive outcomes for children, youth, and families.

COVID-19 has exacerbated long-standing system collaboration challenges across state child welfare, behavioral health, and Medicaid that lead to unsatisfactory outcomes for the most vulnerable children in our communities. Most worrisome is the worsening of behavioral and physical health challenges and trauma because of uncoordinated or fragmented care. This lack of coordinated strategy and policy leads to higher costs of treatment and also increasingly exposes states and local jurisdictions to threats or filings of class action lawsuits, and related settlements or those arising from Department of Justice investigations. Fortunately, federal and state efforts and investments to address the youth systems of care – including schools, community, delivery systems, and community-based child placing agencies – are in motion.

In November, a call for applications was released to U.S. states and territories for potential participation in the State Policy Lab. Applicants were required to identify demonstrated need, existing state agency governance structures focused on children and youth, technical assistance needs, and outcomes for attending the policy lab. The applications required demonstrated participation from Medicaid, child welfare and behavioral health agencies; a commitment to creating sustainable interagency solutions for children, youth, and their families and had to certify formal support from the Governor/Cabinet level.

An external independent panel reviewed applications for state agency participation using a standardized rubric that covered four domains:

• Gaps and opportunities analysis
• Intent of collaborative partnerships
• Approach to engagement of youth and adults with lived experience
• Imminent risks to public agency operations as a result of poor outcomes for children, youth, and their families

This convening is aimed at assisting child welfare, juvenile justice, behavioral health, Medicaid, and K-12 public education where possible to build upon existing efforts to improve outcomes for children, youth, and families, strategically layering on missing components and promoting alignment between them and with other agency priorities. Examples of what could be co-designed with state partners:

• Build a shared strategic vision for a comprehensive continuum of care that ensures access to the "right service, at the right time based on individual and family need." This vision can strengthen prevention initiatives and ensure the full array of evidence-based community-based interventions including use of crisis response and stabilization models.
• Develop policies and strategies for improving the engagement of children, youth, and families with lived experiences to the "right part of the system for the right level of care," agnostic of the door through which they enter any coordinated child serving system, while ensuring that all aspects of this system are anchored in equity.

Following the event, learnings and findings will be disseminated to help states and counties adopt innovative solutions to improve outcomes for children, youth, and their families.

For more information email: [email protected]

SOURCE Health Management Associates