Union County Project AWARE
Project Abstract
This application, Union County Project AWARE, is submitted by the Mental Health and Recovery Board of Union County (MHRBUC), the behavioral health planning and funding authority (political subdivision) for Union County, Ohio. Union County Project AWARE will provide the needed enhanced infrastructure and integration of community and school-based behavioral health services by strengthening the multi-tiered system of support and student assistance program structures and processes and embedding school navigators, family peer support specialists, shared data, and increased access to services and effective training and support for youth services in Union County. This project includes a partnership between the MHRBUC, three LEAs; Marysville Exempted Village School District (MEVSD), North Union Local Schools (NULS), and Fairbanks Local Schools (FBLS), the State Education Association Ohio Department of Education (ODE), the State Mental Health Agency Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (OhioMHAS), and four local behavioral health providers; Maryhaven, Prevention Awareness Support Services (PASS), Wings Support and Recovery (WINGS), and Council for Union County Families (CUCF). This funding will allow Union County to develop the infrastructure and processes needed to infuse the state-level recommendations to increase sustainability of the best practices for student behavioral health. Union County Project AWARE will serve approximately 7,600 students in three Union County School districts and will encompass behavioral health services across the Institute of Medicine’s Continuum of Care from preventions to treatment and recovery supports (IOM, 2009).
In 2019, MHRBUC began a significant plan to link child serving systems, behavioral health providers and public/private payers to support expanded mental health services to ALL Union County youth across the full Institute of Medicine’s Continuum of Care (IOM, 2009). This innovative and collaborative program took several years to stand up to begin serving families. One of the primary tenants of this model is to ensure that all youth and families had access to this service no matter their location or payer source. Union County Project AWARE will expand Mosaic and further provide the most cost-effective and responsive approach of embedding behavioral health services at the school building level.
This project will address data-driven areas of need including enhanced collaboration and partnership, mental health literacy, continuum of care access, multi-tiered system of support, and expanded services and support. The goals of the project include; Goal 1: Enhance collaboration and partnership between student, family, school, and community behavioral health service providers to increase awareness of mental health, substance use, and co-occurring issues among school-aged youth, Goal 2: Identify and create opportunities to support school staff and community members’ mental health literacy and skill acquisition to support student and school staff wellness, Goal 3: Identify and remove barriers to access, engagement, and service delivery for services across the IOM continuum of care to promote and foster resilience building and mental health well-being, Goal 4: Establish and expand student assistance program with evidence-based and trauma-informed prevention and behavioral health interventions as a part of the school districts’ multi-tiered system of support framework, and Goal 5: Sustain and expand critical System of Care supports and services across the Institute of Medicine’s Continuum to connect school-aged youth with behavioral health issues, including SED or SMI, to the right service at the right time.
