On July 22 the Maryland Behavioral Health Coalition held a virtual Crisis Services Forum to showcase state and regional crisis response initiatives and learn how they are coordinating to serve Marylanders in crisis. After a legislative history of Maryland’s Crisis Response System, representatives of the Behavioral Health Administration (BHA), Maryland Medicaid, Greater Baltimore Regional Integrated Crisis System (GBRICS) Partnership and Totally Linking Care in Maryland (TLC-MD) gave presentations and answered questions.
Dr. Aliya Jones kicked off the BHA segment, which included Stephanie Slowly’s report on the Maryland Crisis System Workgroup, Kathleen Rebbert-Franklin’s description of the 988 Planning Coalition’s work, and Dr. Maria Rodowski-Stanco’s presentation on Children, Adolescent, and Young Adult Services (CAYAS) crisis response planning.
Maryland Medicaid’s Liz Kasameyer explained the plan to leverage Outpatient Mental Health Centers to provide Comprehensive Crisis Stabilization Center services. An Opioid Operational Command Center grant is funding a transformation workgroup that has developed a 5-year plan to this end. She and Tricia Roddy described their efforts as of the close of the first year.
Adrienne Breidenstine presented the GBRICS update. Funded by an HSCRC Catalyst Grant and led by Behavioral Health Systems Baltimore, GBRICS is a regional effort in Baltimore City, and Baltimore, Howard, and Carroll Counties. The five-year, $45 million initiative aims to reduce unnecessary visits among the 58,000 annual emergency department visits with a primary behavioral health diagnosis in a region with almost 2 million residents. Elements include a comprehensive call center, mobile crisis teams, open access services, community engagement and stakeholder oversight.
Dr. Billina Shaw spoke about the HSCRC Catalyst Grant-funded TLC-MD initiative serving Prince George’s County and Southern Maryland. Components of the five-year, $22.8 million initiative are call center enhancement, 24/7 mobile crisis, receiving/stabilization center, transportation, and re-admission reduction. TLC-MD is similar to GBRICS with hospital and community provider participation. Goals include integration, access, and quality. It will utilize Lyft medical rideshare and Mindoula (care managers and extenders working with psychiatry via technology), among others, to reduce costs while expanding access.
Over 100 attendees packed the Zoom room to hear the informative discussion about how we will collaborate to ensure that Marylanders have access to behavioral health resources when and where needed.  Please email to request a copy of the presentations,.