Helping MassHealth children with behavioral, emotional, and mental health needs and their families with integrated behavioral health services and a comprehensive, community-based system of care.
Mobile Crisis Intervention
MassHealth offers a Mobile Crisis Intervention service. A team trained to work with children and youth in crisis can meet you at your home, school, or another place in the community. An MCI team will show up within an hour of your call. The team can guide you and your child through a crisis and connect you with other services. Find your local team now so you have the information when you need it. Call 877-382-1609, anytime, day or night. Once you dial this number, a recorded voice will ask you to enter your zip code. Based on your zip code, you will be given the phone number of the closest Mobile Crisis Intervention team that serves you. Have a pen or pencil and piece of paper ready to write it down. Place the number in a location that is easy for you and your family to find when you need it. Please note that calling MCI is not the same as calling 9-1-1. If your child is in danger or is putting others in danger, call 9-1-1.
CBHI began as an interagency initiative to carry out the remedy from the Rosie D class action lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of MassHealth-enrolled children and youth with serious emotional disturbance (SED). CBHI is now part of the MassHealth Office of Behavioral Health, and continues to be involved in monitoring and reporting our activities to the court.
Through the remedy, MassHealth
- Pays for an enhanced continuum of home- and community-based behavioral health services;
- Requires that primary care providers screen for behavioral health conditions at well-child and other office visits; and
- Standardizes behavioral health assessment by requiring clinicians to use the Child and Adolescent Strengths and Needs (CANS) assessment tool to document comprehensive initial assessments, and to update the CANS every 90 days to ensure that treatment plans address strengths and needs as they evolve
This integrated system is a work in progress. We hope you continue to visit the CBHI website. Please come back again and again for more information and updates on our work. Use our friendly URL: www.mass.gov/masshealth/cbhi.
Our Values
The Systems of Care (SOC) philosophy guides the work of CBHI. The SOC framework fosters collaboration across agencies, families, and youths.
These core SOC values guide the development, delivery, and practice of CBHI services:
- Youth Guided and Family Driven: Services are driven by the needs and preferences of the child and family, developed in partnership with families, and accountable to families.
- Strengths-Based: Services are built on the strengths of the family and their community.
- Collaborative and Integrated: Services are coordinated and integrated across child-serving agencies and program.
- Culturally Responsive: Services are responsive to the family’s values, beliefs, norms, and to the socio-economic and cultural context.
- Continuously Improving: Service improvements reflect a culture of continuous learning, informed by data, family feedback, evidence, and best practice.
Our Priorities
- Increase Timely Access to Appropriate Services
- Expand Array of Community-based Services
- Reduce Health Disparities
- Promote Clinical Best Practice and Innovation
- Establish an Integrated Behavioral Health System Across State Agencies
- Strengthen, Expand, and Diversify Workforce
- Ensure Mutual Accountability, Transparency and Continuous Quality Improvement
For more information on the System of Care philosophy, visit the Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health. This integrated system is a work in progress.
Click here for CBHI Brochure – MassHealth Services for Children and Youth