St. Mary's County is newest Care Management Facility
LEONARDTOWN, Md. - Lieutenant Governor Anthony G. Brown on Friday announced the award of a $600,000 grant to the Local Management Board (LMB) of St. Mary's County, Inc. The funds will allow St. Mary's County to create a Care Management Entity to provide wraparound services for children and families. The program is designed to divert children from out-of-home placement through the development of community-based services.
"Congratulations to the families and children of St. Mary's County. They now have access to local child-serving agencies and service providers that will allow children to remain at home while receiving treatment," said Lt. Gov. Brown. "This coordinated system of care can provide service to a variety of children in community settings, without compromising the quality of the programs."
St. Mary's County is the third Care Management Entity in Maryland, following in the footsteps of Montgomery County and Baltimore City. In St. Mary's County, more than 175 workers from various child-serving agencies and organizations have been trained in high-fidelity wraparound. Through the grant, St. Mary's County will be able to serve 20 children and their families.
"We are proud to be a partner with the O'Malley-Brown Administration and the State, in development of local resources to prevent long term out-of-home placement for the children of St. Mary's County," said Bennett Connelly, Executive Director of St. Mary's LMB.
"It is important that state and local governments work together to create programs that serve our children well. The Governor's Office of Children, the St. Mary's County LMB and child-serving organizations in the community collaborated to make these wraparound services available," said Lt. Governor Brown.
The LMB of St. Mary's County, Inc. serves as the coordinator of collaboration for child and family services on the local level.
"I think this is a wonderful opportunity to move Maryland and local government towards development of local care systems through partnerships between local management boards and the Children's Cabinet," said Connelly.
LMBs are funded through the Governor's Office for Children, and bring together local child-serving agencies, local service providers, users of services, and other community representatives to empower local stakeholders in addressing the needs of their communities and setting priorities.
St. Mary's County selected Maryland Choices to develop a local system of care that is family centered, community based, culturally sensitive, outcome driven and fiscally accountable. Maryland Choices is a nonprofit organization that currently manages integrated systems of care in Baltimore City and Montgomery County.
Source: Lt. Gov. Brown's Office