175093 Children's Mental Health Campaign: From Advocacy to Policy in Massachusetts

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Karen B. Darcy , Office of Child Advocacy-Government Relations, Children's Hospital Boston, Boston, MA
Emily Blair, LICSW , Advocacy, Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Boston, MA
It has been estimated that more than 100,000 of the children and adolescents who need mental health services in Massachusetts do not receive them. Inconsistent mental health policy among state agencies and multiple but separate funding streams have resulted in a fragmented delivery system that is difficult to access and navigate. This is true in every state across the country.

To address these challenges, Children's Hospital Boston collaborated with parent, consumer, and legal advocacy organizations and a major public welfare agency to launch a five year campaign calling for major reform of the state's mental health care system for children and adolescents. The campaign is currently endorsed by 90 organizations. To date the campaign has developed and filed comprehensive legislation, created reports, and engaged a significant number of parents, families, legal advocates, clinicians, etc.

The objective of the Campaign is to dramatically improve mental health systems of care; it is designed to influence state government, insurers, clinicians, educators and the public to ensure that children are identified early, referred to appropriate and timely treatment, that insurers pay for the treatment and that the state plays a more active role in coordinating services. Campaign partners believe that significant reform is possible, but will take sustained, well-coordinated, and strategic advocacy working on multiple levels to achieve success. We will discuss why we chose these issues, how we developed legislative language, and who we needed to engage to drive the issues forward.

Learning Objectives:
Objective one Identify major issues that a comprehensive campaign should consider in a campaign. Objective two: Describe the unique campaign structures required. Objective three: Learn the strategies used to ensure parent leadership in all aspects of the campaign

Keywords: Policy/Policy Development, Mental Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am one of the key campaign leaders
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.