May is Mental Health Awareness month, and last year, like many other organizations, we wrote that Idaho is experiencing a youth behavioral health crisis.
Unfortunately, Idaho has made little to no progress in helping our younger Idahoans thrive.
Leaders across the state – from healthcare CEOs to primary care providers and nonprofit directors to educators – have made it clear that every county in Idaho has a behavioral health provider shortage. For Idahoans in rural areas, especially in schools, mental health care support is basically nonexistent.
Behavioral healthcare can help all Idahoans live productive and happy lives, but the caveat is the care must be accessible to those who need it when they need it.
Finding ways to enhance youth behavioral health access prompted us to commission a study and subsequent report to identify what barriers were preventing youth from accessing these critical services. Our research revealed a broken system and offered direct strategies to improve.
We shared our report, which you can view or download here, with state agencies and key stakeholders to raise awareness to the issue and possible solutions.
Below are the five recommendations to improve behavioral health in Idaho:
- Enhance reimbursement for masters-level clinicians with an emphasis on Medicaid.
- Decrease burden of paperwork for Medicaid clients and providers.
- Specifically bolster capacity for care in rural communities across the state.
- Significantly increase the funding for schools to implement evidence-based prevention resources and support coordination of services for students.
- Create a state level interagency workgroup to coordinate and communicate changes to youth mental health services between Medicaid, Division of Behavioral Health, Youth Corrections, State Board of Education, Division of Public Health, etc.
We understand that major changes will not happen overnight, but it is time to take immediate action to help the future of Idaho.
It’s why the Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation for Health will continue to address the youth behavioral health crisis by working with schools and organizations that want to help children. Some of our work includes:
- Helping schools that want to adopt evidence-based frameworks such as PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) that support children and school culture.
- Providing the funding support for all school districts and charter schools to complete the Idaho Youth Well-being Assessment at no cost.
- Supporting the work of Communities for Youth and upstream prevention.
- Our Healthy Minds Partnership program helps arrange for school-located behavioral health services.
- Expanding the reach of the Idaho Coalition for Community Schools. Community schools are a proven way to help students and families thrive by offering services and programs that address needs of the community.
- Offering scholarship programs with most Idaho colleges and universities, many of which benefit students who want to become licensed clinical social workers.
More school districts than ever are requesting our programs, which is a great first step in making an impact in the mental health of our children.
However, Idaho’s youth behavioral health crisis isn’t just a school issue but stretches across communities. We strongly believe that everyone can make a positive impact on the children growing up in our neighborhoods. We added a youth behavioral health session to our Community Health Academy program to raise awareness to the elected officials and city staff who attend this learning collaborative.
Our ultimate goal is to build a healthier Idaho by addressing the youth behavioral health crisis and welcome your support to help build a successful generation of young men and women.