The University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) and Mississippi Children’s Home Services (MCHS) have formed a partnership called “The Children’s Collaborative” to provide a statewide integrated behavioral and mental healthcare system. Supported by a $5 million grant from CMS and the Mississippi Division of Medicaid, the public- private partnership is the first to integrate primary and behavioral health delivery systems.
According to Dr. Susan Buttross, UMMC Professor of Pediatrics and Chief of the Division of Child Development and Behavioral Pediatrics, “One in five children suffer from a mental or behavioral health problem and less than 20 percent receive treatment. This low percentage is reflective of a system that is fragmented and difficult to access.”
The UMMC’s Center for the Advancement of Youth will serve as a gateway for families to enter “The Children’s Collaborative system of coordinated care. Following a comprehensive assessment at the Center for the Advancement of Youth, children will be served through “The Children’s Collaborative and be seamlessly directed to various UMMC pediatric specialists and/or to community-based behavioral health services provided by MCHS.
MCHS is the state’s largest and most comprehensive provider of children’s behavioral health, educational, and social services. MCHS provides a full array of integrated community-based services in all 82 counties as well as intensive campus-based and educational programming.
Over the course of the project, “The Children’s Collaborative” also plans to develop a telehealth network to help children and families access other UMMC pediatric sub-specialty services such as endocrinology and pulmonology.
Governor Phil Bryant said, “Through this new collaborative, more children will gain access to the care they need in a streamlined manner to ease the burden of families and the state’s telehealth network will be able to deliver collaborative and coordinated care that can make a difference in children’s lives.”
Over the next 18 months, “The Children’s Collaborative” will be able to work with the child’s pediatrician in a consulting capacity to help the doctor make an informed decision concerning the behavioral health needs of the child.
Dr. John Damon, CEO of MCHS envisions a partnership where a child with a medical condition in need of behavioral health services will soon have an alternative to the burdensome drive to Jackson Mississippi for routine meetings with their specialists.
The statewide telehealth network will provide access to specialty care in the child’s home community while supporting the child’s physician, thereby allowing the child to remain in school and the parents to remain at work.