Chapin Hall

Chapin Hall, Gov. Pritzker Announce Google Partnership to Build Transformative Tool for Behavioral Health Transformation

On Jan. 29, Chapin Hall’s Dr. Dana Weiner and Governor JB Pritzker announced a partnership with Google in which the tech giant will develop BEACON (Behavioral Health Care and Ongoing Navigation): A Service Access Portal for Illinois Youth that will revolutionize the way families and caregivers access services for young people. This innovation is part of the Illinois Children’s Behavioral Health Transformation Initiative, the groundbreaking rebuild of the way the state delivers behavioral and mental health services to youth driven by the Blueprint for Transformation roadmap. The first release of the BEACON Portal, which will provide navigational assistance for Illinois youth, is estimated to be completed this summer. In addition to partnering with Google, the team advanced each of the Blueprint’s 12 recommendations. Progress over the last year includes expediting placements and services for more than 220 of the most challenging cases in the state. Access the full progress report here.

“In collaboration with Google we are building a state-of-the-art tool for families to ensure that service and support needs are met in a timely, efficient, and responsive manner,” said Dr. Weiner, who serves as Chief Officer for the Children’s Behavioral Health Transformation. “This innovation, as well as the other changes you can read about in the Progress Report, are already serving as an example for the entire country. In fact, many states have reached out to learn more about how Illinois has achieved clarity and progress in the face of a nationwide youth mental health crisis.”

The Transformation team continues to move the needle on all the recommendations. Aligning with Chapin Hall’s efforts to enhance child and family well-being by partnering with community members with lived experience and empowering them as agents of positive change, funds were provided for the initiative’s “Empowering Parent Leaders for Systems Change – Collaborative Curriculum Development” project. This project aims to create a comprehensive parent-led curriculum for parents and caregivers that will equip them with the knowledge, language, and skills required to actively engage in policy planning efforts at leadership levels.

Over the last year, the team also collaborated on the Illinois State Board of Education landscape scan that included schools, regional offices of education, charter schools and feedback from parents. They found that 28% of school districts already conduct universal mental health screenings and another roughly 43% have some form of screening underway. Team experts are now working to develop a phased approach to universal mental health screening of all K-12 students enrolled in public school districts and policy guidance and screening tools to support school staff with screening implementation.

The team also conducted an inventory of community networks that revealed active networks in almost all Illinois counties, surfacing many potential partners to lead community-driven efforts to enhance service availability and accessibility. To capture residential capacity and staffing shortages statewide, a provider capacity reporting tool was launched.

Once the Google-backed BEACON Portal is complete, a designated team will launch it and provide training. Robust supports will be implemented for the provider capacity reporting tool that was launched late last year to ensure residential care agencies are providing timely data on available spaces in their programs. The Transformation team will also continue to work with the state to pinpoint geographic areas that are still lacking services and direct capital grants to areas that should be prioritized.

“This care portal is unique. No other state has a care portal like the one that’s being built here. This is just another example of Illinois leading the way,” said Illinois Governor JB Pritzker at a press conference  at Google’s Chicago headquarters today. “With Google’s help, we are harnessing the extraordinary power of tech innovation to expand the human service sector and its ability to meet the needs of Illinois’s youth. This work is far from over, but our progress in building partnerships in and outside of state government is setting us on a path towards excellence in children’s behavioral and mental health services.”

Weiner and her team continue to work with the Governor’s office to develop the overall initiative into a dedicated office for children’s behavioral health that – building on the initiative’s progress – will continue to prioritize the needs of children and families and overcome administrative and bureaucratic barriers.

Explore the Chapin Hall project page to learn about the initiative’s beginnings.