Children’s Mental Health Initiative (CMHI) Abstract
The Ramsey County Mental Health Urgent Care (MHUC) expansion to provide robust stabilization services to youth will 1) increase access to community-based mental health and behavioral health services, specifically to youth thirteen to seventeen in underserved communities that experience high disparities, 2) decrease youth boarding in emergency rooms without active care, 3) provide rapid outpatient mental health care to bridge gaps within the continuum of care. Our target population focuses on African American males, ages 14-17, experiencing mental and behavioral health needs. Secondarily, intersections through the LGBTQ+, families experiencing poverty, and youth boarding in emergency rooms will experience a direct benefit from the MHUC.
Ramsey County (RC) is the smallest and most densely populated county in Minnesota. It is predominantly urban with around 550,000 residents. 57% of the youth population are children of color. Youth of color in RC experience harsh economic and health disparities. For example, of those youth living in poverty in RC, 60% are Native American/Alaska Native , 30% are Asian. 41% are Black, 27% are Latino and 5% are White. Before COVID-19, 20% youth had a mental health disorder that affected their life at home, school or in the community. A 2021 poll of RC youth showed that more than 70% are struggling with mental health disorders. The Certified Community Behavioral Health Center (CCBHC) and the MHUC are centrally located to provide comprehensive behavioral health care to residents but have experienced large service gaps among its various youth populations due to capacity limits and limited referral sources. From 2021-2022, 682 unduplicated youth were served at the CCBHC, 619 of those referrals came from RC Children’s Crisis.
As an extension of the CCBHC, the MHUC will support the nine core services, and specifically support the enhancement of Children’s Therapy, Children’s Targeted Case Management (CMH-TCM) and Children’s Therapeutic Services and Support (CTSS). Services will be provided in home, and with connection to community-based providers of a client’s choice to best support their recovery. Along with care coordination with current and future providers, and to residents who experience hospitalizations to prevent decompensation and rehospitalization. We foresee strong coordination and participation from the 5888 Child Protection calls (2790 that did not warrant case management), 367 youth receiving CMH-TCM, and the 153 youth accessing Children’s Hospital Emergency Room in 2023.
The intent of seeking the SAMHSA -Grants Children’s Mental Health Initiative (CMHI), is to offer continuous support in the creation of the MHUC. It will fund necessary positions including 1 Full time (FT) Mental Health Professional, 1 FT Project Director, 1 FT Mental Health Supervisor, .5 FT MHUC Manager and .5 FT Evaluation manager. The grant will also support new contracted services to provide respite beds for youth who have been accessing shelter through the Children’s Hospital emergency beds, when they could be utilizing crisis respite beds in a home like setting. Additional contracts supported will be a contract for a Family Lead Coordinator with Partnerships for Permanence to work with an individual with lived experience to walk with families through the MHUC experience. Security services will also be needed due to increased hours evening hours of the MHUC and crisis services, as well as increased access to our NEXT GEN medical record system and increased psychiatric services to include serving youth. These are the primary requests within the grant, some additional funding will be used to serve those without insurance and those under insured, costs for program expenses, clothing expenses, and indirect costs incurred.
