California's Behavioral Health Commission Expands Mental Health Services

As promised after last weeks behind the scenes peek from the #PCAA media tour, here is a segment from one of the interviews conducted that day with Dr. Melissa T. Merrick, President and CEO of Prevent Child Abuse America. Today’s media tour segment focuses on something many families feel during back-to-school season. Stress rises. Routines shift. Costs stack up. Parents carry a lot, and kids feel the impact. Dr. Merrick explains why supporting parents early matters. When families have access to resources that help them manage financial and emotional pressure, children stay safer and communities grow stronger. Prevention is not just compassionate. It is one of the smartest investments we can make in our future. All parents need support at times. Grace and connection matter. If you are feeling stretched this season, talk to someone you trust. And if you need help with essentials like housing or food, visit preventchildabuse.org and click the orange “find help” button. Strong families build strong communities. Supporting parents helps everyone. Watch the segment here.

The Westchester County Department of Community Mental Health (DCMH) has received a $4 million-dollar federal grant to create and expand a coordinated mental health support system for children and teens with serious behavioral health needs by bringing together schools, families, healthcare providers and community organizations. The four-year System of Care (SOC) grant will support THRIVE (Transforming Health, Recovery and Integrated Value in Education) Westchester. Funding comes from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins said: “Every child deserves the opportunity to learn, grow and succeed with the support they need. This significant federal investment reflects Westchester County’s longstanding commitment to the health and well-being of our children and families. Through THRIVE Westchester, we are strengthening partnerships among schools, behavioral health providers, families and community organizations to create a more coordinated, accessible and compassionate system of care that helps young people reach their full potential.” Read more: https://ow.ly/MW6y50ZB5Fe

Pace University is helping shape the future of mental health support for children and families across Westchester County. As part of a new $4 million federal SAMHSA investment in THRIVE Westchester, Pace University has been selected by Westchester County to lead the initiative’s research and evaluation efforts—measuring outcomes, informing continuous improvement, and helping build a stronger, more coordinated system of behavioral health support for young people. This is what partnership with purpose looks like: bringing Pace’s research expertise together with schools, healthcare providers, families, and community organizations to address complex challenges and create lasting impact close to home. As Pace Interim Associate Provost for Pleasantville and Partnerships Rebecca Tekula, PhD, noted, the initiative will help strengthen early identification, connect families with appropriate services, and build a more coordinated system of support across Westchester. We’re proud to put Pace expertise to work for the communities we call home. #PaceU #WestchesterCounty #MentalHealth #CommunityImpact #Research #HigherEducation

Pace University is looking forward to working with Westchester County on this important and significant grant. Interim Associate Provost for Pleasantville and Partnerships Rebecca Tekula, PhD said: “This grant represents an important investment in the well-being of Westchester’s children and families and in the capacity of our school districts to respond effectively to students’ behavioral health needs. Through THRIVE Westchester, the County and its partners will strengthen early identification, connect families with appropriate services, and build a more coordinated system of support. Pace University is proud to partner on this initiative which will produce lasting impact across Westchester.”

Meaningful systems change requires more than expertise within individual disciplines. It requires bringing diverse perspectives together - including the lived experience of families - around a shared purpose. I am deeply grateful to the Fairfax County Police Department, the Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, our family presenters, and the first responders and medicolegal professionals who contributed their expertise and perspectives to this inaugural training. At the SUDC Foundation, we believe that scientific rigor, thorough death investigation, and compassionate, family-centered communication are interconnected. Bringing these elements together strengthens our collective ability to understand sudden unexpected child deaths while supporting families with clarity, compassion, and respect.

Meaningful systems change begins with collaboration.  The SUDC Foundation was honored to partner with the Fairfax County Police Department and the Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for an inaugural workshop, Responding to Sudden Unexpected Child Death Scenes: Investigation, Communication, and Family-Centered Care.    An upwards of 100 first responders and medicolegal professionals joined us for this important training, bringing their experience, expertise, and commitment to strengthening the response to sudden unexpected child deaths. Our sincere thanks to Fairfax County Chief of Police Kevin Davis for supporting this initiative and to Investigator Mary Weldon for spearheading the training. We are equally grateful to Investigators Paige Bakatsias and Paola Cruz Maldonado and Dr. Florencia Segura, board certified pediatrician and SUDC mom to Rosalie for sharing their expertise, and to Dr. Segura, Miranda Magdangal, SUDC mom to Ezra, and Matt White, SUDC dad to Preston for sharing their children’s stories and the family perspective. We are also grateful to the community organizations that joined us to provide resources and support for families: Child Loss Foundation, First Candle, George Mason University’s Center for Community Mental Health, Haven of Northern Virginia, NAMI Northern Virginia, and Star Legacy Foundation. And a special thank you to Love Like Rosie for their generous support in helping make this training possible. At the SUDC Foundation, we believe the response to the sudden and unexpected death of a child is strengthened by an informed, interdisciplinary, trauma informed, and family-centered approach that brings together the expertise and perspectives of everyone involved. For first responders, there may be multiple sudden and unexpected child deaths over the course of a career. For a family, that moment will forever change their lives - and the presence, words, and actions of those who respond can remain with them for a lifetime.    Learn more about the training and this important collaboration in our press release: https://lnkd.in/eRgU5prZ     Thank you to everyone who made this inaugural workshop possible. #FirstResponder #ChildLoss #TraumaInformed #FamilyFirst #TogetherWeAreStronger #FairfaxPoliceDepartment #ChildLossFoundation #FirstCandle #GeorgeMason #NAMINorthernVA #FindHelp #HavenOfNorthernVA #StarLegacyFoundation

IN MY ERA OF TURNING PAIN INTO PURPOSE… Through Adcock Coaching and The Shoes Left Behind, I want to: • Empower survivors to recognize abuse and reclaim their voices. • Help parents walk into family court informed, organized, and prepared. • Make trauma education essential for judges, attorneys, guardians ad litem, and other professionals. • Bring greater awareness to coercive control and post-separation abuse. • Demand accountability when “the best interests of the child” are spoken—but not practiced. • Protect children from being placed in the middle of adult conflict. • Ensure children’s behavioral changes are recognized as possible signs of trauma—not simply defiance. • Create meaningful reform within the family court system. • Give safe parents the support and resources they too often have to search for alone. • Make professional coaching accessible to survivors who cannot afford it. • Build a nationwide community of advocates, survivors, professionals, and lawmakers committed to change. • Turn the shoes children leave behind into a symbol the world can no longer ignore. • Leave behind a legacy that says: we saw what was happening, we spoke up, and we changed it. This is not merely my healing era. This is my advocacy era. My accountability era. My change-the-system era. And I am only getting started…

Every year, roughly 20,000 babies are born in the United States with prenatal opioid exposure (POE). Andra Wilkinson, PhD MSPH and Theresa Harmon, LICSW, PMHNP-BC highlight lessons learned from a survey and focus groups with families raising children with POE, and describe how Child Trends and To The Moon and Back are partnering to pilot and evaluate an innovative model of care for children with POE and their families. https://lnkd.in/gVZB2yr5

In the first ~seven months of our adolescent peer support program with Meridian of Illinois Medicaid and foster care, over 1,100 at-risk youth have worked with a SOMETHINGS peer mentor to support their behavioral health and bolster their wellbeing! Very proud of this program, in a state with a long legacy of Medicaid innovation!

Big news, and we couldn’t be more excited to share it. 🎉 Somethings is officially partnering with Centene Corporation and Meridian of Illinois! Together, we’re bringing peer-based mental health support to teens and young adults across the state. That means 159,000+ members ages 13–21 now have access to youth-friendly support. Why does this matter? Youth mental health in Illinois needs us right now. Nearly 4 in 10 high school students report persistent sadness or hopelessness. Our model pairs trained peer mentors with lived experience, backed by licensed clinicians. It’s early, approachable support that meets young people where they are — stigma-free. This partnership is a big step toward closing the gaps in care, especially for youth in the foster system. Grateful to Meridian and YouthCare for sharing this vision. Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/gypimDMe