The Milwaukee County Mental Health Board has begun meeting with Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin representatives to discuss outsourcing child and adolescent patient behavioral health care.
In a meeting on July 7, Mental Health Board member Duncan Shrout said CHW administrators had agreed to begin talks with members of the Mental Health Board and Milwaukee County’s Behavioral Health Division.
“The hope is that we can build a relationship over time so that should the time come when we want to outsource child and adolescent services that we will have established a functional and trusting relationship with Children’s Hospital to do this,” Shrout said during the meeting. “This is a beginning. This is not the final conversation. This is not part of any contractual relationship. (We are) beginning conversation in this process. Children’s has agreed to entertain us in a meeting and I am very appreciative of this.”
The county has been moving away from long-term care at the mental health complex located in the Regional Medical Center in Wauwatosa over the course of the past few years and has been pursuing partnerships with local and out-of-state health care systems to eventually begin outsourcing care.
When asked earlier this month whether Children’s is considering administering child and pediatric behavioral health care for the county, Children’s spokesperson Andrew Brodzeller said the hospital system is open to discussing ways to improve local mental health care.
“Children’s expressed a willingness to help evaluate the pediatric needs of the community to help inform the process moving forward, but no specific proposal or concept has been shared at this time,” Brodzeller said.
A BizTimes cover story in March explored ongoing changes at the Mental Health Complex as well as the Behavioral Health Division’s plans for the future regarding mental health care in the Milwaukee area.
