Board and public raise gaps in McHelp/McAlp service directory for youth mental-health care

Unidentified Speaker 2, presenting during the operational report, said staff had met with the McAlp/McHelp app developer to renew the contract, seek onboarding with school professionals and obtain analytics at no extra cost to the county. "We came up with a plan of how to push it out more," the presenter said, noting plans for another meeting in January and a school-professionals meeting in February.

A public commenter (Unidentified Speaker 3) described helping a young child access services and said the app and service directory sometimes list providers inaccurately or show insurance as covered when it was not. "There are multiple inaccuracies in terms of what was covered on the McHelp app," the commenter said, and urged making the directory more user-friendly so families do not need to call seven or eight agencies to find a fit.

Board members and staff agreed analytics would be critical to identify gaps and measure outcomes. Unidentified Speaker 6 said analytics "are absolutely essential" to show where service gaps exist and how to engage parts of the community not being reached. Staff asked the commenter to remain involved to help pinpoint specific inaccuracies so they can be corrected in the service directory.

The discussion left the board with two near-term items: continued work with the app developer to improve onboarding and analytics, and follow-up with community users to surface specific inaccuracies for correction. No formal vote or policy change on the app was taken at the meeting; staff reported planned follow-up meetings.

The board will revisit progress on the service directory and any analytic reports at a future meeting.