MPH Students and Alumna Win Best Practice Award

Three UNC Charlotte MPH students, Jasmine Mickle (’16), Jenny Cooper (’17), and Keesha Corbin (’18) as employees of Benchmarks, helped to spearhead an innovative project to improve mental health services for children and families in North Carolina. Benchmarks’ Partnering for Excellence (PFE) redesigns the local child welfare/behavioral health system, changing the way Departments of Social Services (DSS), Local Management Organizations/Managed Care Organizations (LME/MCO), local providers, and the wider community understand the need for accessible, appropriate mental health services for children, youth and families who have experienced potentially traumatic events.

In September, Cardinal Innovations (the local LME/MCO) won the Best Practice award for Children’s Health from The Institute for Medicaid Innovation for PFE. The best practice awards program recognizes Medicaid health plans that have demonstrated innovative and effective approaches to providing services to Medicaid beneficiaries and communities. Earlier in the year, Rowan County DSS was granted a 2016 Achievement Award in the category of Children and Youth for PFE. PFE epitomizes public health work through many of the ten essential public health services including developing new policies and practices, linking people to needed services, evaluating the effectiveness of such services and conducting research for new insights. Jasmine, Jenny, and Keesha use the public health knowledge they gained through UNC Charlotte’s MPH program every day!