The Children's Mental Health Initiative: A Golden Opportunity

The State of Washington, as a participant in the Federal Medicaid program, is obligated to provide Early Periodic Screening Diagnosis and Treatment to all children who are enrolled in Medicaid; to encourage the necessary screening and to provide the mental health services to children identified, according to Medicaid Guidelines.  Washington State, like most states, has not done a very good job of providing these services; and is now  in the midst or a State-wide Mental Heath Transformation effort  to correct this oversight.   Yakima County received a six-year $9 million from SAMHSA is in the third year of this six year grant.

The SAMHSA Children's Mental Health Initiative grants are awarded to facilitate the transformation of the child serving systems to better serve all children and families to provide comprehensive evidence-based mental health treatment services to children and their families.  SAMHSA requires that the communities who receive the grants involve the youth and families in planning, implementating, and providing the services and in collecting the data required by SAMHSA.  Mental health treatment services and supports have to be Family Directed, and Child and Youth centered, in order to comply with the terms of the grant.

The Family Driven Development Team is to recruit from the community people who have raised, or are now raising children with serious emotional and behavioral issues which require services from mental health, special ed., juvenile justice, child welfare and other child serving systems which receive Federal funding; and which put them at risk of out of home placement.  

The Children's Mental Health Initiative mental heath system transformation grants are, in all reality, the Federal Government paying the State of Washington, and other States, Tribes and Governments that receive them, to do what the Federal Government ordered all recipients of Federal monies to do over twenty years ago:  To provide effective mental health and other needed services to children in a coordinated, comprehensive  manner.  In a nutshell, the Federal Government ordered states to make whatever administrative, fiscal, and service system changes necessary, and to enter into cooperative agreements which will effectively accomplish lasting systemic change; creating a system that works more effectively and cooperatively together, to serve children better.  This Federal mandate was intended to compel the States to create the changes which would allow the child serving systems to better fulfill their individual and collective missions.  A primary mission underlying each of these individual system's purpose and operations, must be to effectively help children with behavioral and emotional issues, whatever the cause; to effectively support and encourage children and youth achieve their true potential.  This goal is best achieved by helping families who have children and teenagers with intensive psycho/social/behavioral problems.  

Imagine if all child-serving systems were to combine resources, skills, experience and wisdom to eliminate barriers, address disparities, to more effectively serve these children and youth.  Imagine that intentionally, thoughtfully, members in the community share their experiences, skills and talents, imagine that as a community, we act collectively to help these kids and their families.  I imagine that when we do this, we will be helping all of us...  

I know it is possible to positively change the course of a life.  I am painfully aware that lives are not always changed for the better in the current public mental health and child welfare systems, which is biased towards the ineffective and dangerous bio-medical model of care.  I know that children and families of Yakima County and the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation do not know of this project will not benefit from it.  Three years+ into what is supposed to be a community driven effort and most people in Yakima County have never heard of it.  The youth who are supposed to be a priority, the youth at risk of inpatient hospitalization, incarceration or other out of home placement, and their families, have thus far not been extended an invitation; or even informed of the opportunity passing them by... These families are supposed to be leading the effort.