With over 30 years of experience in children’s behavioral health, Medicaid, and managed care, Dayana Simons is a nationally recognized expert in children’s behavioral health policy, service delivery, financing, and design. Her work in response to Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) litigation helps shape national, state, and local efforts to transform children’s behavioral health systems, fostering cross-system alignment to improve outcomes for young people and their families. Ms. Simons brings extensive expertise in Medicaid managed care contract and project management, and serves as a subject matter expert on redesigning the delivery of children’s behavioral health care. Her work includes developing systems of care for multi-system-involved children, youth, and young adults with serious behavioral health conditions and their families.
Ms. Simons was previously Health Program Director at the Institute for Innovation and Implementation, University of Maryland-Baltimore School of Social Work. As a core leader in the National Technical Assistance Network for Children’s Behavioral Health, she established the Mobile Response & Stabilization Services (MRSS) peer curriculum, now a nationally recognized best practice, and co-led a national quality collaborative on psychotropic medication use for youth in residential care. She also served as a primary consultant to U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Children’s Mental Health Initiative grantees in multiple states. Earlier, Ms. Simons led a multi-state quality collaborative funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) through the Center for Health Care Strategies, focused on improving services and supports for youth with serious behavioral health challenges. Ms. Simons was part of the Medicaid leadership team that redesigned behavioral health services for children and youth in Massachusetts in response to the Rosie D. EPSDT lawsuit, and started her career as a clinician working with multi-system-involved children, youth, and their families.
Recent Publications
Take a Walk on the Child Side: Making Emergency Behavioral Response Systems Work for Youth and Families (Blog post)
