Thursday, April 25, 2024
4/25/2024
In response to the recent Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) from the federal Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) entitled: FY2018 Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Grant Program, L.U.K. Crisis Center, Inc. (LUK) proposes to develop, maintain, and enhance infant and early childhood mental health promotion, intervention, and treatment services throughout Worcester County, Massachusetts, in a program called Developing Resilience and Well-being (DRAW). There are two primary foci of this project: Treatment of children and their caregivers using evidence-based treatments (EBTs) as well as training and consultation to build workforce capacity for early childhood education (ECE) and mental health (MH) providers and students. Direct service will be provided (1) for infants and children (ages 0-12) who are at significant risk of developing, showing early signs of, or have been diagnosed with a mental illness, including a serious emotional disturbance (SED) and/or symptoms that may be indicative of a developing SED in children with a history of in utero exposure to substances such as opioids, stimulants or other drugs that may impact development; and (2) multigenerational therapy and other services that strengthen positive caregiving relationships, utilizing ARC Grow and Early Pathways, two EBTs appropriate for use with the population of focus. We expect to receive and screen 400 referrals each year (2,000 throughout the 5-year project) and enroll 144 children/families into EBTs in Year 1 and 192 in subsequent years year (912 throughout the entire project). In order to provide this level of service, we plan to implement learning communities (LCs) for ECE and MH providers. We will provide training for 200 ECE providers/students each year (1,000 over the five-year project); smaller groups of 50 will participate in ongoing monthly consultation (250 over the five-year project). We will increase the capacity of MH providers to provide the identified EBTs by training 40 practitioners in ARC Grow and 25 in Early Pathways each year (325 over the entire project). DRAW’s proposed objectives/outcomes include the following: * By the end of the 5-year project, 75% of ECE providers participating in the ECE LC (training/consultation) will report increased ability to identify and refer the population of focus * By discharge, 75% of families will be strengthened to significantly: - improve children’s social-emotional skills and functioning - improve children’s developmental and language functioning - decrease children’s problem behaviors - enhance caregiver interactions/caregiver-child interactions * By the end of 5 year project, 75% of MH practitioners engaged in the EBT LCs will report an improvement in individual practice
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).
