Across the country, local leaders are working to strengthen community behavioral health systems by expanding access to services, reducing stigma, and improving coordination among health care, social services, schools, and the justice system. These efforts increasingly focus on culturally responsive approaches that promote wellness and recovery, as well as building a shared understanding of available services and how systems can work together more effectively.
Through the Middlesex County Behavioral Health Partnership, the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) is supporting Middlesex County, New Jersey, in reshaping how county partners work together to serve residents with behavioral health needs. In collaboration with the county’s Department of Community Services, CHCS convenes virtual and in-person sessions that regularly bring together more than 60 cross-sector participants to develop more coordinated approaches to meet community behavioral health needs.
The convenings:
- Foster cross-system collaboration county-wide to address behavioral health needs across the lifespan;
- Identify and address knowledge and service gaps; and
- Promote improved outcomes through shared learning and stronger connections across sectors.
Topics addressed include loneliness and social isolation, maternal and early childhood mental health services, social media impact on children’s behavioral health, reentry supports for justice-involved youth and adults, crisis response for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, harm reduction, and distribution of federal opioid settlement funds, among others.
Throughout the initiative, CHCS is distilling best practices and practical guidance for community stakeholders nationally through publications (see below) and other community-based behavioral health partnerships.
