--Serving Cass County, ND and Clay County, MN
For general children’s mental health consultation information or local referral please contact CMHelp@hotmail.com or 701-429-1277.
WELCOME TO THE CMH INITIATIVE WEBSITE!
Children’s Mental Health Initiative Expansion
The CMHI has received matching grants from Dakota Medical Foundation and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Local Funding Partnerships. The four-year grants will provide mental health screening, assessment, consultation, education and early intervention services to improve the lives of children ages 0-5 and their families.
The project provides a social-emotional screening component at Innovis Pediatrics and an opportunity for parents to consult with a mental health professional about their child’s social-emotional development.
Phone and e-mail early childhood mental health consultation will also be provided for the community through select referral agencies, with FirstLink serving as the initial pilot site.
New grant activities are expected to begin in October 2009.
CMH Initiative Progress
DMF hosted a CMH summit in the fall of 2006 to determine strategies to improve access to mental health services for children age 0-8. Over 50 mental health provider and referral organizations represented at the summit identified hiring a coordinator to facilitate collaboration as a priority. DMF provided a $75,000 grant to Southeastern North Dakota Community Action Agency to fund the initiative’s first year and the coordinator position.
In April, 2007, a CMH coordinator was hired and began working on additional summit-identified priorities. The first was to meet with children’s mental health service providers in Cass and Clay counties to gather information about their services. Once accomplished, this information was compiled into a comprehensive Children’s Mental Health Resource Guide and distributed to all Cass and Clay county providers and referral sources and to the general community. An advisory council comprised of over 20 area children’s mental health experts was also formed.
A second summit was held in the fall of 2007. Educating the community about children’s mental health issues and how to access services was identified as a priority. A community children’s mental health fair was held in May 2008 with informational booths and a keynote speaker addressing the key warning signs of children’s mental health disorders. Two free follow-up community education sessions were also held to provide information on behavior management, child advocacy and early childhood psychiatric disorders. A website and newsletters were developed to provide ongoing information and education to the community.
The third annual Children's Mental Health Summit was held September 23, 2008. Input gathered from the 2008 Summit drove the newly expanded projects of the initiative.
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