This week has been Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week, and Thursday (May 7th) was Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day. The Vermilion County Children’s Behavioral Health Network combined with community organizations and mental health advocates from 4 to 6 PM Thursday at the Danville Public Library for a free family friendly community event, designed to raise awareness about local resources available to benefit children’s mental health.
One local advocate who knows a lot is DeeAnn Ryan. She combined forces with an attorney about eight years ago, where a consent decree was reached with the State of Illinois; making sure that the state is providing required health and mental health services for children on Medicaid.
Ryan says the first step for families is not just to know where to go for help, but also to have more than one resource to choose from.
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AUDIO: A lot of times parents don’t know about things. Parents give up because they get put on a waiting list; just all kinds of things. So we want kids to engage, so the can take advantage of the services.
Ryan says this goes for all levels of mental health needs for children.
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AUDIO: The kids with the intensive needs; the ones we want to keep out of the hospital and out of jail, and residential placement; are just a part of this.
Ryan says primary care physicians needing to know right away “where to turn next” remains an issue, even if screening for mental health needs is required.
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AUDIO: And when they do screen, they don’t know where to send kids. Part of our outreach is going to be to outreach to primary care, too. You know, a lot of times they don’t screen because they don’t know what to do with the kids if they find something. We want to create demand in the community too, with the services, because we want a trained workforce.
Organizations present at the Public Library Thursday included OSF, Birth to Five Illinois Region 54, the Vermilion County 708 Mental Health Board, mPOWer Counseling, the Danville District 118 iGrow program, Rosecrance, the Survivor Resource Center, and Crosspoint Human Services. You can also google “Illinois Pathways System of Care.”