Children’s Behavioral Health Knowledge Center Symposium and Gailanne Reeh Lecture

The sixth annual Children's Behavioral Health Knowledge Center Symposium and Gailanne Reeh Lecture was held on May 10 at the Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital. Ann Kim, Director of Health & Well-Being at IDEO Cambridge, delivered this year’s Gailanne Reeh Lecture. Ms. Kim is an independent filmmaker who has reported on a range of science global health issues for public television and radio. Her credits include The Age of AIDS (FRONTLINE/PBS) and Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?, both duPont-Columbia Award winners, broadcast journalism’s highest honor. 

From 2016-2017, Ann served as the first Chief Design Officer for U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, bringing design thinking into government and urgent public health issues of addiction, opioids, and social isolation. Her portfolio spans the design of HIV prevention products, digital tools to help kids build emotional strength, to re-design of the US digital immigration experience.

This year's Symposium also featured the 2019 Children's Behavioral Health Innovation Awards. See description below for more information.

• Slides from 2019 Gailanne Reeh Lecture: Health By Design
  

Children’s Behavioral Health Innovation Awards

Doc Wayne Youth Services selected as the 2019 CBH Innovation Award winner

Co-funded by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, the C.F. Adams Charitable Trust, and the Massachusetts Association for Mental Health (MAMH), the CBH Innovation Award is a one-time grant awarded to a non-profit children’s behavioral health or social service organization in recognition of its effort to:  

• Fill an unmet need or gap in the children’s behavioral health care delivery system, or

• Respond to a “wicked” problem facing the children’s behavioral health field through creation of an innovative program or practice. 

After a competitive application process, three finalists were selected to present their innovative program at the event. The more than 150 people who attended then used a real time text- voting feature to select the winner of the $10,000 prize. Doc Wayne Youth Services won for its Chalk Talk program, which blends traditional outpatient therapy and sports. The two other finalists were Riverside Community Care, for their development of Yoga-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and The Brookline Center’s BRYT program, which partners with schools to get youth back on track after prolonged absences. Each received a prize of $5,000.

“Many human services organizations operate on tight budgets and are focused on day-to-day operations and care of children and families, so it can be challenging to take a great idea to the next level,” says CBH Knowledge Center Director Kelly English.“ The Innovation Awards are designed not only to recognize and reward creativity in the children’s mental health field, but also serves as a fun way to engage the behavioral health community in selecting which idea they believe has the most potential for impact.”

Danna Mauch, President and CEO of the Massachusetts Association for Mental Health, notes that, “The Commonwealth’s children are in serious need of innovative solutions that will protect their mental health, promote their resiliency and support their recovery. This year’s finalists were selected both for their innovation and also because they have the potential to be replicated or expanded to benefit children with behavioral health needs and their families across the Commonwealth. We are excited about Doc Wayne’s creative approach to making mental health care more accessible and non-stigmatizing for children with behavioral health challenges.”

Please note: The Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation, the C.F. Adams Charitable Trust, and the MAMH are funding this award. No award funding is coming from the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts and its agencies and subdivisions make no representations as to the ultimate taxability of the Award payment and the Award recipient is responsible for all tax liabilities, penalties, and interest for failure to timely pay estimated or other tax liabilities resulting from the Award.