AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) A private consulting firm will review how Maine provides mental health services to children.
The Bangor Daily News reports that the Boston-based Public Consulting Group is working with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services on a review of Maine’s behavioral health services system.
The review could end by the end of 2018 or early 2019.
The state last reviewed the system in 1997, when lawmakers wanted to reduce how many kids were sent to psychiatric hospitals and residential treatment facilities in Maine and outside the state.
Chief Justice Leigh Saufley recently said Maine lacked alternatives besides incarceration for children with mental illness.
The newspaper has reported that hundreds of child with mental health challenges are on waitlists for services. Meanwhile, dozens of children have been seen to out-of-state treatment facilities.
