Partnering to Advance Mental Health Care for Kids

In 2021, the Children's Hospital Association (CHA), along with the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, declared a national mental health emergency among children and teens. This week, the association took another step toward ensuring children and teens can access the mental health resources they need.

CHA has entered into an affiliation agreement with Speak Our Minds, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building a working system of youth mental health in the United States.

An incubator for innovation

Speak Our Minds functions as an incubator for public and private partners seeking to test and scale system-level innovations that improve how youth mental healthcare is funded, delivered, and governed. As a direct affiliate of CHA, Speak Our Minds serves as a strategic partner to children’s hospitals and youth-serving institutions. It does not duplicate hospital-led efforts.

Heidi Baskfield, Speak Our Mind’s executive director and CHA’s vice president of mental health, said the organization serves as a connector.

"We provide the glue, structure, and shared vision to connect and scale hospital innovations that would otherwise remain fragmented or isolated,” she said.

Specifically, Speak Our Minds provides a structured platform for partners — especially children’s hospitals — to test and evaluate:

• Legal and policy reforms that remove barriers to care.
• Regulatory flexibility to enable innovative delivery models.
• Alternative payment structures, such as Medicaid waivers, state-directed payments, and value-based contracts.
• Advocacy and field campaigns designed to shift public will, legislative agendas, and institutional behavior.
• Pilot programs that demonstrate scalable solutions, particularly for underserved youth.

From mission to advocacy

It’s important to note that Speak Our Minds is not a lobbying group or a direct care provider. Rather, the organization moves forward proof-of-concept policy innovations, financing mechanisms, programs and models, and public advocacy campaigns to advance mental health care for youth.

“We help children’s hospitals and other partners translate their mission into policies and advocacy strategies that can be tested on a small scale to understand broader implementation,” Baskfield said. “Navigating the evolving federal and state landscapes for Medicaid and commercial coverage takes a focused approach to ensure innovations with the most impact help kids around the country.”

Baskfield is an attorney with 20 years’ experience championing the needs of kids with mental and behavioral health needs. She worked as an attorney with the Colorado Protection and Advocacy Agency for People with Disabilities and as an attorney with the federal U.S. Office of Civil Rights. Baskfield has also worked as a government affairs leader for former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter and Children’s Hospital Colorado.

Looking to the future

It’s only appropriate to announce affiliation during Mental Health Month when the nation’s eyes are focused on the ongoing youth mental health crisis. CHA has been a long-time partner with Speak Our Minds, helping to produce a short documentary that features stories of children who have boarded in emergency departments while waiting on dedicated mental health care.

Working in tandem, we can help bring about tangible change to the health care system and promote the well-being of the nation’s children and teens.