"60 Minutes" features innovative Children's Wisconsin mental health programs

“The world needs to, the world needs to know. Mental health and stuff like that needs to be treated, or bad stuff could happen. If you're going through that by yourself, try and contact someone you know, like your friend, your family.”

The words of 11-year-old Austin couldn’t be truer.

On May 8, "60 Minutes" featured the innovative approaches Children’s Wisconsin is taking to address the mental health crisis facing our kids — kids like Austin, Abby, Mary, Neenah, Sophia and so many more. 

Watch the full segment to learn more about these unique programs.

CBS journalist Sharyn Alfonsi sat down with several Children’s Wisconsin staff and providers to learn the unique ways they are proving mental and behavioral health care for children who need it most.

Featured in the segment were: 

• Michelle Pickett, MD, physician in the Children’s Wisconsin Emergency Department (ED). Dr. Pickett leads an effort to screen every child 11 years old and older who comes through our ED for suicide risk.

• Tammy Makhlouf, LPC, manager of the Craig Yabuki Mental Health Walk-In Clinic. The clinic is a first-of-its-kind in Wisconsin that supports children experiencing a mental and behavioral health crisis.

• Brilliant Nimmer, MD practices at one of the first offices to have a behavioral health consultant join as part of the primary care team. It’s a Children’s Wisconsin effort, made possible by a gift from The Yabuki Family Foundation, to expand mental and behavioral health to all our primary care offices and urgent care locations by 2023.

Three incredible and brave young people also shared their own mental health struggles and how Children’s Wisconsin has helped them cope, recover and flourish.