Missouri: University of Missouri Center for Child Well-Being Receives $6.4 Million Federal Grant for Rural Child Psychiatry
The University of Missouri School of Medicine's Center for Child Well-Being has received a $6.4 million federal grant to expand psychiatric and behavioral health support programs serving children and mothers in rural Missouri. The funding, awarded through the Rural Health Transformation Program as part of a federal investment awarded to Missouri by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, will be administered by the Missouri Department of Mental Health and the Missouri Department of Social Services over a five-year period.
The Missouri Child Psychiatry Access Project, known as MO-CPAP, will receive $2.9 million to connect health care and social service providers with child psychiatrists who can consult on behavioral health concerns involving children, and to help families identify local counseling and treatment resources. Center director Laine Young Walker said recent studies report that 20 to 30 percent of Missouri's children may have at least one psychiatric condition, but may not have the right resources to treat or cope with their symptoms, and that MO-CPAP fills that gap.
The Maternal Health Access Project, MHAP, will receive $3.4 million. The program currently provides perinatal health care providers with behavioral health consultations for pregnant and postpartum patients, and under the expansion it will also begin facilitating cardiometabolic consultations from maternal-fetal medicine specialists. The center said cardiometabolic diseases are a leading cause of maternal mortality in Missouri, and that the grant will focus more on rural populations in the fight to reduce maternal mortality.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：密苏里州议会大厦（Jefferson City）。摄影：Farragutful，CC BY-SA 4.0（Wikimedia Commons）。Photo: the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City. Photo by Farragutful, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons).
