Task force to hold post-Felix legislative briefing

The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Task Force, a group of providers, advocates, and other stakeholders dedicated to being the voice for children’s mental health, has requested the Legislature convene an informational briefing, which will be held at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 19, in Room 325 at the Capitol.

The task force seeks to improve access to and quality of mental health and special education services for children and adolescents, and to hold all child-serving agencies accountable for continuous quality improvement.

The Felix v. Cayetano Consent Decree, which mandated the establishment of a system of care for children with emotional and behavioral disorders, ended in 2006. The group notes that in other states in the aftermath of court decrees similar to Felix there is significant slippage in funding, quality and quantity of services.

Concerns raised by the task force include these issues “that require immediate attention to prevent further erosion of care:”

• Vacant Positions – DOH has problems filling vacant positions and many positions remain open, including psychologist, school-based behavioral health and special education positions. This adversely impacts the quality of services and outcomes for children. The task force requests a report on numbers and types of vacant positions, how long positions remain vacant, the reasons for these vacancies, the impact (if any) on services, and their proposed solutions to any such problem.
• Understanding Outcomes/Quality of Services – The task force indicated there is a need for improved reporting on youth outcomes and identification of which factors predict better or poorer outcomes, for example, are any ethnicities, age, diagnoses, neighborhoods, or services linked to better outcomes than others? It has requested DOH and Department of Education data going back to 2004.
• Funding – The task force requested data on the overall state expenditures for children and youth with mental health challenges and whether and to what extent such expenditures have changed since the resolution of Felix and on recent changes in the state budget process that appear to have reduced the level of federal matching dollars our state agencies receive in Medicaid funds.
• Interagency Coordination – Key to the success of Felix was coordination and collaboration between the DOH and DOE, the task force noted, while “it is widely observed that serious barriers prevent students from obtaining these additional needed services smoothly and in a timely manner.” The group requested the Departments provide information on what aspects of their coordination are working and where improvements need to take place.

Task force members include: Ivalee Sinclair, chair of the Special Education Advisory Council; Marya Grambs, executive director of Mental Health America of Hawai‘i ; Dennis Arakaki, Coordinator, Invisible Children’s Project; Al Arensdorf a consultant for the Maui Mayor’s Office; and Charles Mueller, professor of Psychology at the University of Hawai‘i .