Bridges to Health
Meeting the mental health needs of children in out-of-home care is critical to promoting their well-being and permanency. The Bridges to Health (B2H) Home and Community Based Medicaid Waiver Program is designed specifically for children in foster care with significant mental health needs, developmental disabilities or who are medically fragile. With approval from the Department of Health and Human Services, B2H offers 14 uniquely designed services not otherwise available in the community to children with these complex medical conditions, and does so in the context of their often complicated family and caregiver network.
By supporting children in foster care in the least-restrictive home or community setting, the B2H Waiver Program provides opportunities for improving the health and well-being of the children served, and supporting stability and permanency planning. The B2H Waiver Program consists of three Waivers: B2H for children with serious emotional disturbances (B2H SED); B2H for children with developmental disabilities (B2H DD); and B2H for children with medically fragile conditions (B2H MedF). The B2H Waiver Program is designed to recognize that children in foster care can have many caregivers involved in their lives. In the program, children are served in the most home-like setting possible, involving those in the caregiving network, whenever appropriate––foster family, birth family, and adoptive family members. By wrapping services around the entire caregiver network, B2H hopes to keep children out of more costly, medical institutional care.
B2H services complement, but do not duplicate, services provided to these children through other programs, such as foster care. The children may enter the B2H Waiver Program only while in foster care, but once in the program they may be eligible for services after discharge from foster care until age 21 if the child remains otherwise eligible. Further, by having the same services available in each waiver for the enrolled children, regardless of the qualifying disability, B2H creates new opportunities for serving children with cross-system needs.