Alliance Health and Community Partners Win Innovation Award for Wake County School-Based Team

Alliance Health and a pair of community partners have received a 2023 Innovation Award from the i2i Center for Integrative Health for demonstrating commitment to innovation in the quality of services by improving treatment through measurable outcomes that result in success in the lives of the individuals served. The award recognizes Alliance, Wake County Schools (WCPSS) and WakeMed Health and Hospitals for the School Based-Team (SBT) serving Wake County youth.

Funded by Wake County, Alliance’s School-Based Team identifies and connects qualifying WCPSS students to behavioral health and intellectual and developmental disability (I/DD) services. The program consists of a seamless dedicated team that works together to support families with whole-person care when children are experiencing a crisis. If the crisis warrants inpatient treatment, the Alliance team communicates with WCPSS and WakeMed Mental Health and Well-Being to coordinate around the projected discharge date and collaborate with the school, family, and treatment providers to support a successful transition back to the community and school. The three program partners collaborate daily to prioritize school inclusion and support crisis transitions. WakeMed has welcomed School-Based Team liaisons on site, embedded alongside their team and resulting in real-time, system of care support for families and children during crisis episodes.

Beyond linking them to needed services, the SBT’s crisis work supports students in their transition back to school after a crisis episode by addressing needs related to social drivers of health – the conditions in the places where people live, learn, work and play that affect a wide range of health and quality-of-life risks and outcomes. This is done through a family engagement and system of care approach in which SBT coordinates with the family, school, treatment providers, and community partners.

This process has been used as a guide across North Carolina to support school-based mental health policy and legislation directing managed care organizations and public school systems to focus on crisis transitions. The team has made presentations on its model to the North Carolina General Assembly Safe Schools Special Committee and the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

The School-Based Team served 632 children during the 2021-22 school year. This includes 276 in the crisis program, 93% of whom were linked to needed treatment. Alliance and its WCPSS partners attended over 200 child and family team meetings to support transitions, and 100% of WCPSS students returned to school within 10 business days after discharge from a psychiatric residential treatment facility.

“The Alliance SBT has continued to go above and beyond in their collaboration with our office to support the many needs of our students and families as the pandemic continues to cause great impact,” said Cam Lopes, Director of Special Education Services at WCPSS. “They are always willing to problem solve around complex needs so students can be supported within their least restrictive environment.”

To learn more about the Alliance School-Based Team, visit https://report.alliancehealthplan.org/.

About Alliance Health

Alliance Health is the managed care organization for publicly funded behavioral health care services for the people of Cumberland, Durham, Johnston, Orange and Wake counties in central North Carolina as well as Mecklenburg County. Currently, Alliance works with a large network of private providers to serve the needs of over 120,000 Medicaid eligible people and thousands of uninsured individuals in its six-county service area.

Alliance will begin operating as a Tailored Plan in the coming months as part of North Carolina’s Medicaid transformation. In that role, Alliance will manage all the health care needs – physical, behavioral and pharmaceutical – for individuals with severe mental illnesses, substance use disorders, or long-term care needs including intellectual/developmental disability and traumatic brain injury.

About i2i Center for Integrative Health (i2i)

i2i brings together health care leaders to solve the most important issues affecting behavioral, intellectual and developmental disabilities, and primary health care in North Carolina, helping diverse organizations collaborate and resolve critical policy issues.