Tuesday, April 23, 2024
4/23/2024
Project Summary: The Washington System of Care Project will expand systems of care (SOC) statewide with an emphasis on providing day treatment programs in two counties, Thurston and Grays Harbor. Those two sites will serve neighboring counties including Mason and Lewis Counties. The project will also provide therapeutic foster care in three sites, two in western Washington and one in eastern Washington. Washington state will develop a consistent approach across local and state child/family service delivery systems to support SOCs with an emphasis on filling gaps in intensive services to allow young people to be served at home and avoid institutional placements. The SOC expansion will focus primarily on youth aged 12-18, but therapeutic foster care services may extend to younger children. The project will serve youth who are at risk of being placed in residential setting or being locked up in juvenile detention. The primary goals of this grant are to 1) Increase school based screening and engagement of youth who are identified as seriously emotionally disturbed within the catchment areas, 2) Increase the number of youth receiving Day Support Services (day treatment), 3) Address the needs of children and youth in foster care by increasing the number of youth receiving Therapeutic Foster Care Services, (4) Continue to promote and sustain youth and family participation in the system of care through the Children’s Behavioral Health Governance Structure (the Governance Structure), and (5) Increase the number of people exposed to positive messages about mental health through a social media campaign. The core system objective will be to demonstrate the effectiveness of these intensive services in stabilizing children and youth in their own homes and reducing hospitalizations and out-of-home placement. With successes in these programs, we believe that state and local policy makers will be more likely to fund the services state-wide. These goals are consistent with previous efforts to prioritize addressing trauma and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) more effectively and facilitate our governor’s overall goal to overhaul the state’s mental health system by keeping people with mental health symptoms in the community and out of institutional placement. The governor has explicitly outlined a goal to “treat people in the most effective and least restrictive setting.” This will require filling a gap of high intensity services that exist between the current Wraparound with Intensive Services (WISe) and Children’s Long-term Inpatient Program (CLIP). The SOC expansion services will work with existing governance structure including the Family/Youth/System Partner Round Table (FYSPRT) at the regional and state level to identify opportunities and challenges with the current children’s mental health system of care. This collaborative structure will be the catalyst for continuous feedback and recommendations to local and state policy makers to improve service delivery and outcomes in our state.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
