Maine Project Narrative
Introduction
1. The purpose of the proposed project is to implement a standard of care change to health care providers in Maine. It will:
- Increase access to behavioral health care by expanding the ability of pediatric primary and specialty care providers to detect, assess, treat and refer children with behavioral health disorders;
- Improve access to behavioral health care and other support services for children and their families;
- Provide training for the utilization of a standardized validated screening tools to screen children and adolescents for behavioral health conditions and on referral and treatment; and
- Create a method for ensuring that real-time psychiatric consultation and care coordination is available to pediatric primary and specialty care providers.
2.a. Maine will build on a standard of care change model that has been successfully implemented by a practice in Southern Maine. Its funding ended in 2015 and the work was not sustainable without outside funding. This opportunity allows for more consistent implementation, including strong foundational provider training and a feasible plan to maintain and expand this model after the grant funding has ended.
2.b. HRSA funding for this project will be used to complement, without duplicating other state activities with similar goals. The funding used on those activities is the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant. Maine receives $3,316,776 annually. The Title V Program is the applicant for this project. The Title V MCH Block grant supports population-level strategies focused on twelve priority areas. See Attachment 8 for the full set of priorities. Four of the 2016–2020 MCH priorities support behavioral health for children and youth: developmental screening; bullying and youth suicide prevention; improving access to treatment for adolescents with unmet mental health needs and medical home for children and youth with special needs. HRSA-19-096 funds will help fill the behavioral health consultation and service gaps in rural and underserved communities and complement the population health policy and systems change strategies being implemented through each of the MCH priority action plans.
The Maternal and Child Health Block Grant (MCH BG) will provide 0.15 FTE of the Project
Director’s time. The sustainability plan will include the use of Title V funds and the required
maintenance of effort funds
Continue reading: State of Maine HRSA-19-096 Project Narrative (PDF)