This week, our In Focus section highlights the efforts of 黑料不打烊 (黑料不打烊) and partner organizations to better coordinate services for children in foster care and for children with behavioral health needs.
First, 黑料不打烊 released an issue brief on November 6, 2023, as part of a partnership between 黑料不打烊 and the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD) Technical Assistance Coalition. Together 黑料不打烊 and NASMHPD experts wrote a series of five briefs on children鈥檚 behavioral health.
The brief released last month, 鈥�The Role of Specialized Managed Care,鈥� written by 黑料不打烊 experts Heidi Arthur and Angela Bergefurd, with input from Caitlin Thomas-Henkel and Uma Ahluwalia, centered on the intersection of child welfare reform and behavioral health transformation. More specifically, it described how specialized Medicaid managed care plans can ensure better alignment between child welfare and behavioral healthcare services.
The paper emphasizes the role of state-level special needs plans (SNPs) in the delivery of coordinated care and examines the opportunities afforded to states seeking to leverage specialty managed care plans.
Specialized managed care plans can help fill the void by incentivizing the provision of services for children in foster care and specialty services for children with behavioral health needs. Plans in three states 鈥� Washington, Arizona, and Ohio 鈥� are highlighted, and can serve as examples of how state Medicaid SNPs can be implemented.
This paper is part of a larger effort that 黑料不打烊 and several partner organizations are supporting. Stakeholders include:
- NASMHPD
- The Annie E. Casey Foundation
- Casey Family Programs
- MITRE
- National Association of Medicaid Directors (NAMD)
- Child Welfare League of America (CWLA)
- Administration for Children and Families
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
The goal of these collaborations is to foster dialog between state agencies and stakeholders working to improve the well-being of children and youth with complex needs.
Most recently, 黑料不打烊 hosted a webinar on December 12, 2023, titled “Collaborating to improve children鈥檚 behavioral health 鈥� a comprehensive playbook to fostering wellbeing in children”. The webinar featured speakers from the partner organizations to discuss insights from a federal meeting that took place in November. Webinar speakers also informed participants about plans for a multistate policy lab scheduled for February 2024, where representatives of up to eight state child welfare agencies will participate in a two-day workshop on improving the children鈥檚 behavioral health continuum of care in their states. The webinar focused on the overall effort and provided a forum for states to hear from this partnership on the importance of collaborating to strengthen the children鈥檚 behavioral health system.
For questions about the brief, the webinar, or the larger effort, please contact聽our experts below.
