Tracking THINK: Year Three Arrives
According to the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1 in 20, or as many as 3 million young people, may have a serious emotional disturbance that impairs their ability to function at an age-appropriate level. Unfortunately, an estimated two thirds of the young people who need mental health services in the US are not getting them. And, just as disturbing, CMHS states that many of the nation's 54,000 children with serious emotional disturbances currently treated in hospitals and residential treatment facilities "would be better served in less restrictive, community-based facilities within an integrated system of care."
The Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and their Families Program is funded through CMHS, and was created in 1992 by Congress to help states demonstrate and promote more effective ways to organize, coordinate, and deliver mental health services and supports for the increasing number of children and their families who need help from more than one service system.
As one of the national sites, Hillsborough County's community plan, Hillsborough integrated Network For Kids (THINK), is a five-year, seven million dollar grant now in year three, and administered through the Children's Board of Hillsborough County.
Staff at the Department of Child and Family Stufies (CFS) have worked closely with the Children's Board to help THINK reach the CMHS goal of providing families with services that are both affordable and available when and where they are needed. CFS staff provide evaluation and technical assistance for developing programs that include families as partners in designing services that focus on the child and family strengths.
"An important aspect of the CFS role is to identify technical assistance resources locally and in other areas of the state and nation as needed," said Norin Dollard, the CFS evaluation director. "CFS staff are also assisting with any data support needs. We are currently looking at the demographic characteristics of children and families for further implications for program and system of care development."
Local findings have shown that families currently enrolled in THINK tend to have higher rates of mental illness and substance abuse issues than reported in other CMHS sites.
"The implications of this locally," added Norin, " are that the integration of services needs to go beyond just child serving systems to adult serving systems so that these families have the support necessary to maintain and nurture their children." For additional information, contact Norin Dollard at 974-3761.
During a recent site visit from the federal granting agency, a presentation was made describing THINK's 202 children currently enrolled in the local system of care. System of care program components include:
Thinkids
Thinkids is a pilot project for 25 children with SED and their families using system navigators functioning as case managers who broker a variety of services as needed. CFS staff have been working with program managers, system navigators and families enrolled in the program to develop a quality assurance process, to measure and assess a family's satisfaction with service and to gain feedback to improve services.
Project Relief
Project Relief ,highlighted in the September 2000 Inkling, provides afterschool, overnight, weekend and holiday respite services for families and caregivers of children with SED. Countywide respite training is offered to increase the availability and quality of respite services. CFS staff are now conducting a longitudinal evalutation of this project that will look at caregiver strain, family satisfaction, and development of social support networks for enrolled families.
The Hillsborough County Youth Advocate Program
This program provides non-traditional community-based advocacy services to teens with SED who are in foster care and who may be involved with other child serving systems, such as the Department of Juvenile Justice.
The Federation of Families Hillsborough County Chapter
This is the county's first family-based organization designed to support children and families with mental, emotional and behavioral health problems. Offering mentoring, training, advocacy, referrals to services and peer support, the agency is now housed within CFS and Rene Anderson serves as president. Their new website is www.federationoffamilies.org.
The Department of Child and Family Studies (CFS) is a department of the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, University of South Florida. The faculty and staff of CFS are committed to enhancing the development, mental health and well-being of children and families through leadership in integrating research, theory & practice.