The Maryland Department of Health has announced a partnership to establish a roadmap for improving the behavioral health of youth in the state.
Maryland Department of Health Secretary Laura Herrera Scott said in a news release Wednesday that the department will partner with Maryland Family Coalition and Manatt Health to invest in new school-based initiatives and youth crisis services.
By December, the group plans to conduct a current state assessment, prepare an internal report and develop a roadmap for proposed policy changes on behavioral health, including mental health and substance use. Karen Duffy, chief development officer for Maryland Family Coalition, said the coalition has already met with stakeholders to contribute to proposals that will be submitted to the Department of Health.
“The goal isn’t to hand them a document that’s going to sit on a shelf,” Duffy said. “They want something actionable, something that can immediately implement the changes they need in their children’s behavioral health system.”
The specific focus of the roadmap has yet to be determined, but Duffy said some of the topics that could feature in the plan include early intervention and prevention programs, mobile crisis response systems and inpatient emergency departments at hospitals.
The Department of Health chose to work with the Maryland Family Coalition because the coalition has a strong presence in the child health community and has “hands-on experience” tackling these issues, said Laura Torres, director of the Department of Health’s Bureau of Behavioral Health Care.
“Organizations like MCF work with these families on the ground regularly, they are trusted and they have members who are always available to talk to families,” Torres said.
Torres said the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted a sharp rise in mental health issues among children nationwide, something that has been a concern for several years.
There are several children’s behavioral health issues facing both the state and the nation.
Duffy said some children who visit the emergency room with mental illnesses are unable to move to another bed for hospitalization and end up staying in the emergency room for days. Children are experiencing co-occurring disorders where mental illness and substance use are intertwined with each other, Duffy said.
Duffy added that there is also a staffing shortage among behavioral health providers.
Sharon Huber, a professor in the department of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, said the new partnership is an opportunity for the state to take a step back and reexamine how it approaches children’s behavioral health.
Rural communities outside of central Maryland tend to have a shortage of behavioral health providers, Huber said. Even in resource-rich urban areas, she said, systems that address children’s behavioral health care may not be well coordinated. Certain populations are typically more vulnerable, Huber added, including the LGBTQ+ student population.
Huber said he is “excited” about the roadmap and looks forward to plans to provide direct behavioral health activities in schools.
“It’s absolutely essential that young people are mentally healthy if they are to thrive in their schools and communities and prepare for college and careers,” she said. “If we want to focus on young people’s success in school, we must also focus on their mental health.”