Health Care Foundation grant awarded to fund children’s behavioral health needs assessment

The Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City has awarded a $70,000 grant to the Mid-America Regional Council on behalf of the Metropolitan Mental Health Stakeholders Group to support a children’s behavioral health needs assessment.

MARC’s Regional Health Care Initiative provides staff support and coordination to the Metropolitan Mental Health Stakeholder’s Children’s System Change Committee, a formal planning and advisory body charged with the development of recommendations and ongoing assessment of transformational initiatives to enhance behavioral health care for children in the Kansas City region.

The needs assessment will help the committee develop recommendations to improve access to an integrated and well-coordinated system of quality behavioral health care for children in the Kansas City metropolitan area. MARC will contract with a third party partner to provide expertise and guidance, research local and national children’s behavioral health models and develop a framework for a coordinated community initiative.

“Children’s behavioral health care is too often underfunded, fragmented, and not integrated with other services,” said Scott Lakin, director of the Regional Health Care Initiative. “With this assessment, we’ll be able to clearly identify what services are currently available in the Kansas City region and what gaps must be addressed to improve access to quality behavioral health care services for children and their families.”

The needs assessment is also expected to include a set of recommendations to help the Children’s System Change Committee move from planning to implementation.

Since 2004, the Health Care Foundation has awarded more than $120 million in grants to further its mission of promoting quality health for the uninsured and underserved in the Kansas City metropolitan area. “We’re pleased to have the foundation’s support for this and many other projects,” said Lakin. “We share a common goal of helping all residents lead healthier lives.”