Memorial Hospital serves as host of regional behavioral health consortium

CARTHAGE, Ill. — Representatives from various organizations and agencies around the region recently attended the first Regional Behavioral Health Consortium at Memorial Hospital, with the Memorial Medical Clinic Carthage Behavioral Health team serving as hosts. Twenty-six agencies and organizations with 30 representatives were present at the consortium.

This initiative was developed and led by Chaka Batley, director of behavioral health services at Memorial Medical Clinic Carthage.

In a press release, Batley said, “It is refreshing to witness so many agencies in the region come together with an open mind to share, learn and strengthen partnerships as we all set out to improve the health outcomes of our community. Too often, rural communities have limited resources, and our solution to this is creating space for agencies to collaborate.

“The focus of the Regional Behavioral Health Consortium is to build awareness of what services are currently available and identify services that our community needs that are not being provided. This will allow us to provide services that wrap around our most vulnerable individuals collectively. We are stronger together.”

The consortium’s purpose was for each agency and organization to share information about their services and how to connect individuals to appropriate care. As acknowledged by the group, mental health services are such a need in the region. The group spent time brainstorming solutions for the future and discussed how to grow partnerships was a key topic at the consortium.