Funding will help residential facilities
transition children back to home and community
CHARLESTON, W.V., Dec. 8, 2022
/PRNewswire/ -- Aetna Better Health® of West Virginia, a CVS Health® company (NYSE:
CVS), has provided $6.1 million to 18
health care providers across the state to help them expand
community-based waiver services for Children with Serious Emotional
Disorders (CSED) and in-state specialized residential
care. The community investments will help youth living in
residential facilities transition back to home- and/or to
community-based settings, like foster homes where the child and
family can receive high-intensity behavioral health and other
social care services in an environment that is loving and the least
restrictive.
West Virginia's CSED waiver
program provides eligible children and teens with serious
behavioral or mental health needs with a range of intensive
behavioral health services and supports. The goal of the program is
to assist children with severe emotional disorders by helping them
remain with their families, in their homes and communities, with a
support network, while receiving the services they need to improve
outcomes.
"Children with specialized and high-need behavioral health
concerns, such as children with autism spectrum disorder or severe
trauma reactive behaviors, are often placed in residential
facilities that offer unique specialized services. This practice
can create much stress on the family unit, including the child,"
said Kathy Szafran, Executive
Director, Mountain Health Promise, Aetna Better Health of
West Virginia.
"Currently, there are over 500 West
Virginia children living in some form of residential mental
health treatment facility," said Todd
White, CEO Aetna Better Health of West Virginia. "Aetna wants to assist current in-state
residential treatment providers in expanding their services to help
move these children back home. The objective of our community
investments is to allow these facilities to assess the strengths
and needs of children already in or entering residential placement,
evaluate mental health and other social support services those
children will need to return to their communities, then develop a
plan to address barriers to accessing those services."
Many of the state's residential treatment providers that
received Aetna's community
investments are using them to implement innovative programming
strategies to transition children back to the community,
including:
- Hiring clinical staff, therapists and community service
coordinators to achieve a continuum of care by broadening the scope
of their residential work through adding an in-community care
component
- Adding staff training for the delivery of community-based
services for children
- Developing specialized intensive programing for youth impacted
by trauma
- Expanding discharge planning services and aftercare
According to Szafran, "an example of how providers have applied
creative solutions occurred in a recent case where a nine-year old
with extreme behavioral challenges was removed from his adoptive
parent's care and placed in a residential facility. After
nine-months of receiving intensive, residential therapy to improve
his coping skills, it was determined he was eligible for a CSED
waiver and was able to move back home with the supportive plan that
he and his adoptive parent continued to meet weekly with the
community-based wraparound facilitator and licensed behavioral
health therapist. A year after the CSED waiver services began, the
boy is the best he's ever been, and is excelling at home and
school, with no bouts of aggression."
Among the West Virginia
organizations receiving Aetna
community investments were:
Provider
|
Provider
|
Board of Child
Care
|
Genesis Youth Crisis
Center, Inc.
|
Braley & Thompson,
a StepStone Agency
|
Prestera
Center
|
KVC West Virginia, a
subsidiary of KVC Health Systems
|
Burlington United
Methodist Family Services, Inc.
|
NECCO
|
Elkins Mountain
Schools
|
Diversified Assessment
& Therapy Services
|
The Children's Home of
Wheeling, Inc.
|
Home Base
Inc.
|
Davis Stuart
|
Florence Crittenton,
Inc.
|
Golden Girl,
Inc.
|
National Youth Advocate
Program
|
St. John's Home for
Children
|
Children's Home Society
of West Virginia
|
Stepping Stone,
Inc.
|
"Aetna's generous support,
vision and partnership will allow us to expand family strengthening
and mental health services to the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, as well as potentially prevent
the need for some foster children to enter residential treatment,"
said Jason R. Hooper, President and
CEO, KVC Health Systems, one of the funding recipients. "Thanks to
the collaboration with Aetna, many
more children and families can now access vital services that will
contribute to their immediate and long-term health and
wellbeing."
Aetna Better Health of West
Virginia is the sole managed care organization for the
state's Specialized Managed Care for Children and Youth contract.
The statewide contract covers the physical and behavioral health
care services for children and youth in the foster care system and
individuals receiving adoption assistance, as well as children in
the CSED waiver program. The health plan has administered CSED
waiver programs for members in West
Virginia since March 1,
2020.
About Aetna Medicaid
Aetna Medicaid Administrators LLC (Aetna Medicaid), a CVS Health
company, has over 30 years of experience managing the care of the
most medically vulnerable, using innovative approaches and a local
presence in each market to achieve both successful health care
results and effective cost outcomes. Aetna Medicaid has particular
expertise serving high-need Medicaid members, including those who
are dually eligible for Medicaid and Medicare. Currently, Aetna
Medicaid owns and/or administers Medicaid managed health care plans
under the names of Aetna Better Health and other affiliate names.
Together, these plans serve approximately 2.8 million people in 16
states, including Arizona,
California, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, New
Jersey, New York,
Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and West
Virginia. For more information, see
www.aetnabetterhealth.com.
About CVS Health
CVS Health® is the leading health solutions company, delivering
care like no one else can. We reach more people and improve the
health of communities across America through our local presence,
digital channels and over 300,000 dedicated colleagues – including
more than 40,000 physicians, pharmacists, nurses and nurse
practitioners. Wherever and whenever people need us, we help them
with their health – whether that's managing chronic diseases,
staying compliant with their medications or accessing affordable
health and wellness services in the most convenient ways. We help
people navigate the health care system – and their personal health
care – by improving access, lowering costs and being a trusted
partner for every meaningful moment of health. And we do it all
with heart, each and every day. Follow @CVSHealth on social
media.
Media contact
Robert
Joyce
joycer@aetna.com
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SOURCE Aetna