Informing Decisions on Mental Health

It’s budgeting 101: Calculate your income. Identify your needs. Evaluate your spending. Adjust, track, reassess.

But when it comes to the complex mental-health care system, there’s nothing elementary about how to fund first-rate care or help those who need it to access that care.

Like many communities, Sarasota County’s mental health-care system has struggled to keep up with growing needs. And that was before the coronavirus pandemic.

Here4YOUth—a collaborative initiative led by Gulf Coast Community Foundation and Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation—was created to ensure Sarasota County’s mental health system can fully meet the needs of all children and youth in our community. A priority of this effort is maximizing the financing of mental and behavioral health services in our community.

Following the money

According to research underpinning Here4YOUth, the economic impact of untreated mental illness in children and young adults in Sarasota County is over $86 million a year! If we are already losing that much, what improvements could we make as a community by leveraging and enhancing funding on the front end for prevention, early intervention, and treatment?

Through Here4YOUth, Gulf Coast and Barancik Foundation commissioned an expert financial analysis of the current state of mental-health funding in Sarasota County and recommendations for a financial roadmap forward.

The analysis focused on identifying opportunities to:
•    Maximize existing dollars
•    Create new revenue and funding sources
•    Institute collaborative, cross-system financial planning

We are the only county we are aware of that has conducted such a thorough, independent review of currently funded behavioral health services and opportunities for the highest return on investment.

Key findings

Among the important findings of the financial analysis of our community's mental-health system:

•    Approximately $44 million is currently funded for youth behavioral health in Sarasota County on an annual basis.

•    About 70%-75% of that comes from public and local sources.

That effectively means two big things: 1.) We already invest significant sums of money into mental and behavioral health for youth. 2.) We have opportunities to improve where and how much of that money is spent. But we still aren't meeting our community's needs.

Improving ROI

Among the analysis's recommendations to improve mental and behavioral well-being for our youth:

► Increase school-based prevention and early intervention, including within school health programs

► Expand access to community-based mental health services and prevention of mental illness and substance abuse

► Increase the availability of care navigators to assist families and youth, as well as broader resources to support individuals helping youth navigate the system

► Increase the capacity of pediatricians and primary-care providers in the community to identify and treat behavioral health conditions

► Increase crisis-response services and the availability of care for youth with complex needs

► Build capabilities for service providers to bill insurance

Moving forward

We are confident we have the expertise and collaboration within our community to advance these opportunities. Our youth and their families are counting on it.

Staff at Gulf Coast and Barancik Foundation are working with Dr. Andrea Blanch, a local consultant who coordinates Here4YOUth’s activities, to prioritize immediate next steps for short-term opportunities within our current system of care.

We will continue to update Gulf Coast donors and the wider community as this research is activated to continue transforming our system of care.