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Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine

Chequamegon Accountable: the Community for Health (CA:tCH) - Ashland & Bayfield Counties

In Northern Wisconsin’s rural and sparsely populated Bayfield and Ashland counties, residents face an issue of low access to care. With just one behavioral health unit in a hospital across a seven-county region, an overwhelmed system often led to patients in mental health crises being brought across state borders. Additionally, the region’s population reports the number of poor mental health days, children living in poverty, and uninsured persons are higher than state averages. Through a collaboration with NorthLakes Community Clinic in Ashland, the Resilience Alignment Beekeepers served as an organizing group that worked with local partners to form the regional coalition, Chequamegon Accountable: the Community for Health (CA:tCH). The coalition set out to improve the behavioral health response system and reduce the number of crisis calls altogether.
CAtCH Chequamegon Accountable

Impact

The Beekeepers' primary focus was creating an Accountable Community for Health with the CA:tCH Safety Plan workgroup. The group met monthly to design agreements, training, and workflows, bringing in a legal team to assist in their revolutionary project that worked through the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act to create a voluntary patient-owned information sharing system. 

The CA:tCH Safety Plan was created to help identify a person in crisis and provide them the most appropriate care and treatment necessary to best help them during that crisis, including who in their networks to contact, physician information, and best practices for escalation as identified by the patient themselves. 

The prior behavioral response system did not allow this information to be transferred between public health, law enforcement, and emergency response teams when a person made a crisis call, causing confusion and further escalating the situation. The Beekeepers’ ultimate goal was to allow these organizations to collaborate legally and ethically to view information chosen by the patient to best help them during a crisis.

Create a Framework for Systemic Coordination

Allowed cross-sector partners to address the community’s complex behavioral health needs, by facilitating efficient and effective use of resources across organizations through the creation of an Accountable Community for Health.

Increase Access to Services for Underserved Populations

Worked with NorthLakes Community Clinic, Tamarack Health, Ashland and Bayfield Counties to include CA:tCH Safety Plan facilitation as part of their services, which paved the way for coordinated referrals and resources that address socio-economic conditions for community members.

Improve Responses to Behavioral Health Crises

Increased collaboration among partner agencies through information sharing via CA:tCH Safety Plans on the WISHIN portal.

Steering Committee Members

Government

  • Ashland County Health and Human Services
  • Bayfield County Health Department

Education

  • Northland College Center for Rural Communities
  • School District of Ashland

Healthcare

  • NorthLakes Community Clinic
  • Memorial Medical Center

Public Safety

  • Ashland County Sheriff's Department
  • Bayfield County Sheriff's Office
  • City of Ashland Police Department

Highlights/Select Work Product

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