Baltimore Mental Health Systems, Inc.

Agency Description: Baltimore Mental Health Systems, Inc. (BMHS) is a non-profit agency established by Baltimore City to perform the governmental function of managing the public mental health system (PMHS) for Baltimore City. BMHS is the local mental health authority or Core Service Agency (CSA) for Baltimore City. In this capacity BMHS oversees a network of predominately private non-profit providers that deliver services to over 30,000 Baltimore City residents who are Medicaid recipients or are uninsured. BMHS’ primary activities focus on:

· Improving access to care

· Expanding and improving the range of services available to Baltimore City residents with a mental illness

· Ensuring accountability and active collaborations with city and state agencies.

The majority of services through the PMHS are reimbursed through a statewide fee for service system (FFS). Baltimore City accounts for about one-third of the state’s expenditures. BMHS directly awards and manages approximately $20,000,000 in contracts to providers for services not reimbursed through the fee for service system.

There are two non-profit subsidiaries that are part of BMHS’ structure. BMHS serves as the sole member of these two organizations and performs all of the necessary financial operations.

Community Housing Associates, Inc. (CHA) develops affordable housing for individuals primarily disabled with a mental illness. CHA either owns or manages approximately 250 housing units and has a number of sub corporations for each of its projects. CHA has a staff of five including an executive director who serves on BMHS’ management team. All CHA staff are BMHS employees.

Mental Health Policy Institute for Leadership and Training (MHPILT) functions as a link between local academic centers, government and the provider community for the purpose of initiating and coordinating initiatives that will bridge the gap between disciplines, and between research and service system development. The Board of Directors of the MHPILT represent each of the major academic partners in the area including the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University, Hopkins and Maryland’s School of Nursing, the University of Maryland’s School of Social Work, Hopkins School of Public Health, the Mental Hygiene Administration and Coppin State College’s Department of Social Work. MHPILT has one staff member who is the Executive Director.

Since its inception, BMHS has expanded the range of services available to Baltimore residents in areas including, but not limited to the development of affordable housing, the establishment of psychiatric crisis services for children and adults, child and adolescent wrap-around programs, elderly services, a capitation program for persistently mentally ill adults and forensic programs that cover the spectrum from pre-arrest to post-release from incarceration. It is our mission to continue to identify unmet needs in the service system and to develop programs to meet them.