Gov. J.B. Pritzker is laying out a plan in an attempt to fix issues that plague the child behavioral health system in Illinois.
The Children’s Behavioral Health Transformation Initiative is intended to evaluate and redesign the delivery of behavioral health services for children and adolescents in the state.
The initiative will be an interagency approach to help children with behavioral health needs receive the services they need while providing parents with transparency and clarity in the process.
Pritzker said this initiative will help clean up a system that can be difficult to use for the many people who need it.
“Illinois parents have far too often faced the additional obstacles of a system that is inefficient, confusing, and difficult to navigate,” Pritzker said. “So today we are announcing the launch of the Children’s Behavioral Health Transformation Initiative to evaluate and redesign these systems.”
Pritzker also named Chapin Hall child welfare expert Dana Weiner, Ph.D., as Director of the Children’s Behavioral Health Transformation Initiative. Weiner offered some background as to who she is.
“I am a psychologist, a policy researcher, and a parent,” Weiner said. “I care deeply about children and families, and about ensuring that they have access to the supports they need to be healthy and strong.”
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, mental health-related visits are up 24% since 2020 for children ages 5-11, and visits by children ages 12-17 have gone up 31%. Pritzker said these children will be able to get the help they need with this initiative.
“I’m launching the Children’s Behavioral Health Transformation Initiative to evaluate and redesign the systems that support our most vulnerable kids and adolescents so that down the line, Illinois families will be better able to access holistic, wraparound support for children in need,” Pritzker said.
According to a news release from the Pritzker administration, the Children’s Behavioral Health Transformation Initiative will be looking at.
- Needs of children requiring behavioral health services;
- Allocation of resources to meet needs within existing programs;
- Pathways for accessing needed services;
- Eligibility requirements for levels of care;
- Decision-making practices for allocation of resources;
- Alignment of policies, rules, regulations to support transparent, efficient, and effective service delivery;
- Barriers to effective interagency coordination;
- Infrastructure needs to support new pathways and existing programs;
- Best practices from other comparable child-serving systems across the country;
The initiative is expected to have a transformation blueprint by the end of this year.
This article was originally posted on Pritzker announces initiative for children with behavioral health issues
Be First to Comment