A multiagency initiative has determined available mental-health services for children are not enough to meet current needs in Cape Girardeau County..

Putting Kids First is the work of 11 service providers which have issued a report identifying funding gaps in mental-health services such as outpatient psychiatric and substance-abuse treatment and temporary shelters for abused or runaway children.

"Putting Kids First was formed in Cape County about three years ago," said Ashley Beggs, executive director of Cape Girardeau Big Brothers Big Sisters, which is involved with the initiative. "We came together to say that there are needs for kids that are being missed."

Beggs said the data used in the report were collected in 2011 from 27 agencies in the county that provide youth services and from schools, surveys and existing public information. The report was finalized in August 2012, and funding needs were identified in the following mental-health service areas:

* Crisis intervention for children and families in emergency situations.

* Respite care to provide a safe place for children when a family is in crisis.

* Outpatient psychiatric and substance-abuse treatment.

* Individual, group or family counseling services.

* Home- and school-based family intervention programs.

* Services to teenage mothers and fathers.

* School-based prevention programs.

* Temporary-shelter and transitional-living programs.

Beggs said PKF has estimated it would cost nearly $5 million annually to provide sufficient mental-health services to children in the county. A possible revenue stream is a children's services sales tax for county residents.

"I think it's worth looking at," she said. "It might take several years for a tax to be put in place, but we hope that it would be sooner rather than later."

Counties that have instituted a sales tax for mental-health services for children have had positive outcomes, Beggs said. In 2005, St. Charles County ranked in 43rd place in the state for children to live in. After the tax was implemented in 2009, the county saw a 25 percent decline in teen pregnancy, delinquency offenses and substantiated child abuse. By 2012, St. Charles County ranked second-best for children to live in, Beggs said.

"Lincoln and Perry counties also saw improvement for children's mental health when they put in the tax," she added. "Lincoln saw a reduction in births to mothers without a high school diploma and drop-out rates. Perry had an almost 35 percent decrease in Juvenile Court referrals and an increase in the percentage of students graduating with their high school diploma or GED."

Beggs said funding gaps in mental-health services for children are a product of the current economic environment.

"Mental-health service agencies rely heavily on federal and state funding," she said. "But budget cuts have forced agencies to transfer their funding responsibilities to private sector and individual contributions. The recession has destabilized those funding sources."

The United Way of Southeast Missouri, while not a partner in the PKF initiative, may be in the near future.

"We've had our hands full with the work that we're doing," said Nancy Jernigan, executive director of the United Way of Southeast Missouri. "But now that the needs have been identified, it's possible we can work with PKF to help solve the problems."

Jernigan said a stumbling block for United Way participation could be the county sales tax.

"Our board needs more information about the tax issue," she said. "I'm not sure how [members] feel about that."

Service providers involved in the PKF initiative are the Community Counseling Center, Gibson Recovery Center, Lutheran Family and Children's Services, Catholic Charities, Safehouse for Women, New Vision Counseling, Community Caring Council, Early Prevention Impacts Community. Court-Appointed Special Advocates and Beacon Health Center.

For more information on the Putting Kids First initiative, contact Ashley Beggs at 339-0184.

klewis@semissourian.com

388-3635

Pertinent address: 1610 N. Kingshighway, Cape Girardeau, MO

301 N. Clark Ave., Cape Girardeau, MO