Reducing the Impact of ACEs in Marathon County

Advancing Behavioral Health Initiative Phase I funded learning and planning year

Full Project Name:Building a Behavioral Health System to Reduce the Impact of Adverse Childhood ExperiencesPrimary Community Organization:Marathon County Health DepartmentPrimary Academic Partner:Michelle Broaddus, PhD, Psychiatry and Behavioral MedicineAward Amount:$200,000.00

Award Date

July2016

Project Duration:12 months

Project Description Narrative:

Advancing Behavioral Health Initiative Phase I

Building a Behavioral Health System to Reduce the Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences is a project within AHW's Advancing Behavioral Health Initiative, an eight-year, $20 million initiative bringing together 10 community coalitions from across Wisconsin to address pressing mental health needs within their communities. A three-phase initiative, phase one served as a funded learning and planning phase, supporting community coalitions in developing a critical project focus and implementation plan. Through this project, partners sought to develop an implementation plan that would reduce the impact of adverse childhood experiences by 2024 by developing an integrated community and systems approach with schools, behavioral health, health care providers, and key stakeholders for children at risk of experiencing trauma.

Outcomes & Lessons Learned:

Completed the Advancing Behavioral Health Initiative Phase I learning community and planning phase
Successfully developed project focus and implementation plan, receiving funding award for Phase II five-year project implementation period

Project Updates:

Partnered with 11 local clinics to initiate outpatient mental health services in 10 public school districts that serve Marathon County at least one day per week
Implemented policy changes in support of outpatient services in schools, including development of MOAs between school districts and clinics, creation of a collaboration charter between mental health clinics
Created and continue to distribute a 2017 Marathon County Youth Risk Behavior Survey Report, and integrated this data into the 2017-2019 Marathon County LIFE Report, a prominent community report providing a wide spectrum of information and data depicting the quality of life in Wausau and Marathon County