“Hope for Tomorrow: The Collective Approach for Transforming South Carolina’s Behavioral Health Systems” is the product of over 18 months of work by a statewide taskforce of over 60 public and private behavioral health providers, researchers and advocates.

The South Carolina Institute of Medicine and Public Health (IMPH) convened these stakeholders to identify the most significant challenges in our behavioral health systems and provide actionable, evidence-based and cost-effective strategies to provide better care and access to behavioral health services for residents of South Carolina. Chaired by the Executive Director of IMPH, Kester S. Freeman, Jr., the taskforce created a bold vision for behavioral health in South Carolina based on two focal points: the need for crisis stabilization services available at all hours and the need for an improved, more accessible system of chronic care management. The vision depicts a future in which all residents of South Carolina will have equal access to behavioral health services regardless of their individual means or where they live in the state. The result of this vision was the development of twenty actionable recommendations that outline a collective approach for transforming South Carolina’s behavioral health systems.