The Children’s Services Fund (CSF) of Jackson County recently released the Children’s Services Assessment, a deep dive into the state of children’s mental health services in Jackson County. The assessment will guide how the fund can better serve the region’s children and families as well as the organizations they support. The assessment highlights urgent challenges and key areas of opportunity as the CSF evolves its strategy following a major tax fund increase.
We sat down with Dr. Jane Mosley, Director of Impact, and Dr. Jovanna Rohs, Chief Program Officer, to discuss why this assessment matters now more than ever and how it will shape the CSF’s work in the coming years.
Why was it important to conduct this assessment now?
Dr. Jane Mosley:
This assessment is about guiding the CSF’s strategy for the future. With the recent doubling of our tax rate, we now have a fund that’s built to last, and we needed updated data to understand how children in Jackson County are really doing. The last comprehensive data we had was from 2012, so this gave us a much-needed opportunity to ask: How are our kids doing today? Where should we invest our resources?
The report highlights compromised well-being among children. Can you explain what that means?
Dr. Mosley:
The report doesn’t go deeply into why well-being is compromised—it’s not diagnostic—but it clearly shows areas where kids are struggling. And that tells us where we need to lean in with our investments and support.
Dr. Jovanna Rohs:
Exactly. It reinforces the need for the work we’re already doing across our ten core funding areas. It gives us shared language and evidence to use when asking better questions about how we define and meet children’s needs, especially during a time of major shifts in local funding.
Were there any surprises in the findings?
Dr. Rohs:
Nothing really surprised us, but the data helped highlight and validate what we were already hearing from partners. One clear gap is transportation. Many families struggle to get to services. Unfortunately, the CSF can’t fund transportation due to statute restrictions. But this has led us to ask: How can we bring services to where kids already are?
Dr. Mosley:
Same with the workforce—no surprises, but the data sharpened our understanding. Everyone talks about workforce challenges. Now we can dig deeper into specific gaps.
Speaking of workforce, how is that theme shaping your strategy?
Dr. Rohs:
It’s huge. We can’t deliver programs without the professionals to staff them. We’re seeing real need for more licensed therapists, so we’re exploring how the CSF can help people move from provisional to full licensure. That’s a three-year process and can be expensive for agencies. So we’re holding partner convenings to explore solutions.
Dr. Mosley:
And more broadly, everything comes back to the workforce—training, burnout, retention. Without a strong, supported workforce, we can’t meet the growing needs of children and families.
What community or systemic barriers did the assessment surface?
Dr. Mosley:
Transportation, of course, but also economic instability, poverty and other challenges that make it harder for families to access care. These are big, complex issues, but we have to stay aware of how they impact children’s well-being.
Dr. Rohs:
Another is access. Youth in transitional living situations, for example, often face long waits for mental health services. The referral process can be hard to navigate. And providers need training specifically geared toward serving youth, which not all currently have.
What has the response been like from community partners since the report was released?
Dr. Mosley:
We’ve had rollout sessions and convenings. It’s been a gut check. People are seeing their own experiences reflected in the data. The report is shaping new conversations and deeper dives into key areas.
Dr. Rohs:
We’ve already hosted two convenings based on the findings, one around helping provisional therapists move to full licensure, and another focused on shared training for providers. We’re also planning a convening on dual-generation approaches, supporting both children and their families, after a therapist told us, “If we regulate children in our sessions but send them back into dysregulated environments, we’re starting over every time.”
Final thoughts: what should community members, service providers and policymakers take away from this?
Dr. Rohs:
We have a committed workforce in Jackson County. That’s a huge asset. But we have to invest in expanding and supporting that workforce if we want to meet our children’s needs.
Dr. Mosley:
The system is strained, and the needs are growing. We have to think seriously about how to support, retain and recruit people in these roles. And we’re fortunate to have a fund like the CSF to help address some of these systemic issues with better data to guide how we do that.
