In July, the Yabuki Family Foundation announced a $20 million gift to bolster mental and behavioral health care services at Children’s Wisconsin facilities. It’s the largest single gift in the history of the pediatric health system.
The gift will allow Children’s to have as many as 36 full-time master’s degree-prepared therapists, who will work alongside pediatricians in every Children’s primary and urgent care location. It also supports the creation of an endowed mental and behavioral health research chair and analytics team to monitor program efficacy, improve the initiative and share best practices with other health systems.
The donation boosts Children’s five-year, $150 million vision to address the mental and behavioral health crisis among children in Wisconsin, where one in five children is living with a serious mental illness, according to Children’s Wisconsin CEO Peggy Troy.
Jeff Yabuki, the former chief executive officer of Brookfield-based Fiserv, said he hopes the gift will create meaningful change for kids in Wisconsin and across the nation by reducing the stigma associated with mental illness and better integrate mental and physical health care.
“It’s OK. We’re all suffering in this together. We’re coming out of the worst crisis in the last 100 years and we are absolutely going to make it better, transform (and) redefine the way pediatric services are delivered.”
-Jeff Yabuki
