Behavioral Health Division’s Community Conversations
[Music] we’ve seen a growth in many areas of community-based care case management more preventative care crisis mobile teams that sort of thing which has really changed the landscape of our services and has led us to a point where we can make very significant changes like closing an institution that had existed on the county grounds since the 1880s this has been a process and an evolution to change the whole model within the behavioral health division and quite frankly the county is not in the business to run a hospital and can’t financially afford to do that [Music] the redesign process has been about getting input from the community it’s been about getting input from providers it’s about getting input from different organizations different stakeholders the milwaukee mental health task force it was very important for us to include feedback from the people that we serve the people who actually utilize the services delivered through the behavioral health division in our partnerships and so often such decisions are made without any uh feedback or participation from people served so it was really crucial for us to make sure we were hearing from people who experienced our services who had knowledge of the system and could tell us where we were good and where we weren’t so good and so the only way to do that is to really get out there in the community and ask people what they think we wanted to make sure that we structured it in a way that we got feedback from all of those stakeholder groups and really could weigh all those opinions and experiences as we moved forward to the establishment of a mental health crisis center but also really the whole [Music] continuum [Music] we heard very consistently that access to services both the physical location of those services and really understanding about how and where to get help those are the things that we heard the most about we know that there are seven zip codes in the city that are the primary users of crisis services so the new emergency center will be located on 12th and walnut [Music] we’re talking about a system that is very complex our health systems are complex our mental health systems are even more complex and it’s real easy for people to slip through the cracks or to miss the nuance of diverse communities cultural nuances economic nuances subtleties anecdotes and so having the community richly involved helps the mental health board bhd to provide a robust set of services that are responsive to the genuine needs of the community having community conversations is essential not just to plan for the transition but as a ongoing practice to make sure that we have strong understanding across systems strong community buy-in and support i think it was successful because we didn’t there was input and i think that it was a nice turnout but i think we can do more because i think there needs to be more of that universal health services will have a freestanding 120 bed mental health facility where they will provide behavioral health services for adolescents adults and older adult populations in milwaukee county [Music] you’re coming for maybe a mental health concern but is there a housing need is there transportation can we get you connected to services you need a birth certificate from the court right so it’s meeting people where they are finding out what those underlying needs are and getting them connected so they can be their healthiest selves no matter where you come into the system everybody should be equipped to help you and to make those connections so you’re not left to say well we’ll help you with this one thing but you have to go here and here and here to get the rest of your needs met and the big piece the most important pieces we see in there is the connection with those community services that’s what no one door is we definitely need people to provide input at the board meetings where there is opportunity for community input everything we do is a public record a public document the mental health board meetings are open to the public we do a number of public listening sessions throughout the year where people have the opportunity to speak and and tell us what they would like to see happen the input that we receive it was valuable in how we identify how do we move forward and how do we make sure the people that we are we serve they’re at the table we hear their voice they are helping us to make the decisions to say this is what you need and it’s not the county is saying what you need as a mental health board and the behavioral health division we’re committed to providing services that are good for the community and good for people
In February 2020, Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division (BHD) and its partners launched the Psychiatric Crisis Redesign Community Engagement project to educate the community on the behavioral health service redesign efforts that are taking place throughout Milwaukee County and to get community input on the current and future state of behavioral health services in Milwaukee County. This qualitative research project was designed specifically to learn about the lived experiences of the community and to hear the voices of community members.
In partnership with Perceptivity and the Zeidler Group, BHD hosted eight intimate community conversations for up to 20 participants per session. The community conversations, led by trained facilitators, were attended by BHD staff, mental health advocates, law enforcement partners, providers, and the community at large.