Wauwatosa, – Bruce Kamradt, Director of Wraparound Milwaukee, and Rebecca Sommerfield, a Wraparound Youth Specialist, are two of the experts using technology to help spark a dialogue on treating mental health in the United States. The Johnson Foundation at Wingspread hosted the online conversation, titled Inspiring Solutions.
Often, the systems used to care for children who suffer from mental illness and their families are scattered across multiple agencies, areas of expertise and responsibility. Today, a transformation is taking place across the country where child-serving systems are woven together into a system of care to provide services, supports, and treatment required, especially for those children with serious and complex mental health needs. This approach—a system of care approach – includes delivering services that are community-based, highly individualized to the unique needs of each child and family, evidence informed, family-driven, youth-guided and culturally and linguistically competent in order to be as inclusive as possible and reach the greatest number of children.
Inspiring Solutions asks leaders in mental health services and care networks how they have been personally impacted by the shift to systems of care and where they see this movement headed.
Kamradt feels the systems of care approach encourages communities to “think outside the box” when it comes to addressing children’s mental health needs and says Wraparound Milwaukee used the model as a care management approach. Sommerfield became involved with Wraparound as a teenager and believes the system of care movement will continue to be driven by young people.
In addition to Kamradt and Sommerfield, Jim Wotring, Director of the National Technical Assistance Center for Children’s Mental Health at Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development; Brett Davis, Medicaid Director at Wisconsin Department of Health Services; Jonathan Delagrave, Director of Racine County Human Services Department; and Sue Smith, CEO of Georgia Parenting Support Network all participated in the conversation, which can be found at http://bit.ly/1i7M938.
