Mental Health Faqs??

Heads up, other states. The FAQs statement below is your warning.

Mental health programs and services for children in Illinois – like that of most states – are highly fragmented, under-resourced and limited in scope.

Continuing on with their happy talk, we have

The Children’s Mental Health (CMH) Act of 2003 was created to develop a comprehensive system of community and state programs, services and resources that promote the mental health and well-being of children ages birth to eighteen, intervene early to address potential mental health needs, and provide comprehensive mental health services for children who need them.

That's right and even pre-natal.In their current Plan, on page 8,they left in one example of their 1-2 year strategy plan per Karen Van Landeghem's

It was really important to identify priority ones. Ones that we felt were important, ones we felt that needed to be done immediately, ones that also we felt that the policy makers, state legislators would be able to embrace and that was really an important part of a, of getting the Mental Health Act passed, but also the initiative passed.

W/i one-two years they will

Research Illinois barriers that keep women from accessing screening during the peripartum period - pregnancy and the twelve months following the infant’s birth.
g. Provide training and consultation to obstetricians, gynecologists, pediatricians and other relevant primary health care providers in public (e.g., WIC and Family Case
Management) and private settings about appropriate screening and referral practices.
4. Expand Medicaid coverage to include the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale.
a. Disseminate information to primary care providers on Medicaid reimbursement for
perinatal depression screening.
b. Promote pediatricians’ use of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale during well-child visits as a risk assessment of the infant.
5. Examine and modify the state Medicaid plan to extend coverage for pregnancy-related care including family planning services beyond the current limit of 60 days postpartum to one year post partum.
6. Expand Medicaid coverage to include assessment and treatment services for perinatal depression up to one year post partum.
7. Establish funding mechanisms for public and private insurance reimbursement of perinatal depression screenings conducted by healthcare professionals.

Sounds like they're getting ready for lots of screenings. Lots and Lots.
In the Fee-For-Service Initiatives Committee hearing I attended, the Elgin Mental Health Center rep. in charge of Screening, Assessment and Support Services (SASS) stated that she was

excited about screening the Medicaid population

She was only

concerned about doing it and not getting payment

It was also stated that

DCFS and the entire Medicaid population is screened now.

Why are they looking at the Medicaid coverage, funding and insurance? Typical and very unfortunate part of this is that one of the Fee-For-Service Initiatives Committee hearing meeting's purpose that I attended was to find a way to reimburse the providers who are already doing the screening. Some of these agency representatives were almost out of their chairs upset with Public Aid not paying up. But the funding wasn't in place, ya know. They were so confident that this Plan was going to be steam rolled through that they provided the 'services' without funding.
By the way, the only time voluntary was used in the 7/9/04 original Plan that they spent time/energy and wanted bad was here

3. Provide at least two voluntary home visits by a registered nurse to all Illinois families following the birth of a child to assess the physical, social and emotional health of the new family, and link them to appropriate follow-up services as needed to prevent the emergence of developmental,behavioral and psychosocial problems.

If anyone wants that version; the true Want List before they had to take the longer route, I'll be happy to send it to them. Voluntary is inserted 8 times in the new Plan. I have to wonder if the families in the Medicaid system were given the voluntary option. Didn't sound like it at that hearing.

Why are we in Illinois is the position where you need to tell your pediatrician or obstetrician that you do not want a mental health screening? What if he/she thinks homeschooling is wrong? And then you refuse a voluntary mental health screening? What's wrong with you?
Here's another example of the possibilities.

The family has seen the worst of the Baker Act system, Lee's father says.

"In roughly a fourth of Baker Act cases involving children, there are references to psychiatric drugs, a study by The Tampa Tribune shows.

The analysis involved nearly 600 sheriff's reports in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties and was part of a five-month Tribune investigation into the rising number of child Baker Act incidents statewide.

In at least 10 percent of the cases, the child had refused to take a prescribed psychiatric drug, often because of unpleasant side effects. Several other reports listed a recent medication change as a factor in the crisis.

The insane part of this is the unpleasant side effects of these prescribed drugs are suicidal tendencies.