Mapping State Behavioral Health Spending
Mapping State Behavioral Health Spending
Children with behavioral health needs in Georgia and their families are served by a complex system of care spanning multiple agencies and settings with fragmented funding sources. The Center of Excellence for Children’s Behavioral Health at the Georgia Health Policy Center is supporting the Mindworks Georgia to understand how spending occurs across Georgia’s behavioral health system of care.
The initial financial analysis sought to answer the questions of how state and federal spending is distributed to support behavioral health service delivery for children and young adults in Georgia, which state agencies spend dollars on children, youth and young adult behavioral health services and how much are they spending, and at which interventional phases are state agencies investing? Future work will include streamlining data collection and mapping cross-agency spending by beneficiary. The goals of this analysis include aligning federal, state, and local funding pathways; better serving beneficiaries across programs and systems; and ultimately, achieving better access to care and behavioral health outcomes for Georgia’s children.