Friday, May 9, 2025
5/9/2025
Hancock County Community Early Emotional Support Assistance & Wellness (CEESAW) for Children, Youth, and Families - The Hancock County (Ohio) Board of Alcohol, Drug Addiction, and Mental Health Services will create a System of Care providing prevention, early intervention, treatment, and supportive services to 300 children and youth, ages 0-21, with or at risk of developing serious emotional disorders (SED) or serious mental illness (SMI), and their families. The project, Community Early Emotional Support, Assistance, and Wellness for Children and Families, or CEESAW, is built on a Health/Prevention, Wellness/Treatment Recovery-Oriented System of Care (ROSC) framework that is widely used among adult populations, including within Hancock County, which has operated a ROSC for adults with substance use disorders and co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders since 2013. Children and youth with or at risk of developing SED/SMI in Hancock County are not being identified, treated, or supported in the community until their illness is advanced, resulting in poorer recovery outcomes for youth, collateral harm to family members, and greater expense to the system and society. To address this problem, CEESAW will build SOC infrastructure on a ROSC framework to improve prevention, early identification, and referral to the SOC of children with or at risk of developing SED/SMI, and increase youth, family, and community awareness of and access to services available in the SOC. It will also provide comprehensive services, bridge gaps in services, enhance and expand service delivery, and improve formal and informal community supports for children and youth with SED/SMI and their families. CEESAW will serve the mental health needs of youth with SED and their families like a comprehensive cancer treatment center serves the needs of individuals with cancer and their families: Regardless of the way the disease presents itself, responds to treatment, or affects the person in treatment or their family, an individualized, state-of-the-art intervention, service, and/or support will be available and accessible within the system to meet that challenge. CEESAW services will be directly accessible to youth and families, as well as through multiple community access points, including primary health care, schools, courts, social service agencies, and other child-serving agencies. CEESAW will educate each agency about SED/SMI and associated risk and protective factors, and train them to use simple, effective screening techniques to identify children with or at risk of SED/SMI. Services will be comprehensive, youth-guided, family driven, and up to date, enhanced and extended through the use of technology-based applications that meet the needs and expectations of young people. CEESAW’s effectiveness will be documented by Brandeis University throughout and at the end of the grant period. In Year 1, 60 youth will be served, expanding to serve 80 youth per year in Years 2, 3, and 4. 85% of children served will improve their functioning, and the number of children placed out of home for treatment will be reduced each year. Expenditures for treatment within CEESAW will be less than for residential placements.
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).