Establishing Children's Mental Health Services at Community Health Connections - Community Health Connections (CHC), a Federally Qualified Health Center serving North Central Massachusetts for over 21 years, respectfully requested $2,500,000 to establish a dedicated service line for Children’s Mental Health. Services CHC will provide include outpatient individual, family, and group therapy services (in-person and via telehealth), psychiatry, in-school telehealth therapy, therapeutic case management, peer mentoring, parenting classes, as well as consultation and training for local pediatrician offices, schools, juvenile courts, and local police departments. A noteworthy component of these services will include three (3) dedicated Therapeutic Treatment rooms, a Sensory Room, a room committed to Expressive Arts Therapy, and a room focused on safe energy expenditure. CHC’s target population for Children’s Mental Health Services is any child(ren) in need of care, starting at age five through 20 (up until their 21st birthday), regardless of income or insurance status. At full capacity, CHC anticipates serving 800 unduplicated child and adolescent patients annually, with a target goal of treating at least 320 unique patients during the first year. CHC intends its Children’s Mental Health Services to hold capacity for 5,800+ patient encounters in its first year of practice, with a minimum of 3,000 visits (which includes individual, group, family, and psychiatry visits) to child, adolescent, and transition age clients.
