ABHI Children’s Mental Health Initiative

The Crisis

The past few years have been increasingly difficult for children and youth across the nation. Over 140,000 have lost a caregiver due to COVID-19 and hundreds of thousands more have struggled with pandemic-related disruptions to school and family life. The effects of this instability are clear: Research shows that symptoms of depression and anxiety in youth have doubled over the last two years.

In late 2021, these developments led the American Academy of Pediatrics to declare a national state of emergency in children’s mental health.

The Office of the U.S. Surgeon General also released a report.

Children’s mental health needs have also grown exponentially across the Arrowhead region over the last two years. Existing services do not have the capacity to meet current needs in a timely manner nor adequately address this crisis.

Addressing these challenges requires a coordinated and combined approach from across Northeastern Minnesota.

Our Response

In June of 2021, the Arrowhead Behavioral Health Initiative (ABHI) convened a Children’s Mental Health Cabinet with the goal of creating a responsive, representative, sustainable leadership structure to support the needs of children and families in the Arrowhead region.

Through this Children’s Cabinet, seven counties, three tribal nations, three community mental health centers and two community health boards have come together to develop a process to engage regional partners and stakeholders.

The goal is to create a more comprehensive regional children’s mental health continuum so that children and families can access appropriate services close to home.

The Children’s Cabinet will operate using Incident Command Structure (ICS), an organizational structure specifically designed for emergency situations. ICS supports well-defined leadership, communication, planning and accountability, and will be used to establish a coordinated, regional approach to facilitate sustainable collaboration and successful outcomes.