Thursday, March 13, 2025
3/13/2025
NC DHHS' Division of Child and Family Well-being (DCFW) is applying to fund the "NC System of Care Expansion: Focus on Governance Development and High-Fidelity Wraparound (HFW) Utilization." We are applying to address specific needs related to Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services (CCMHS) through strengthening the System of Care (SOC) approach at the state, county, and provider levels. Building a better system for all young people with SED is the priority, with emphasis on target populations including: 1) youth at high risk for placement in residential services, mental health crisis units and Emergency Departments (ED), 2) minority populations, 3) young people in foster care and 4) with exposure to trauma. We plan to start two new HFW teams in four NC counties with large African-American populations. African-American youth (22% of the population) are disproportionately represented in NC EDs for behavioral health crises (46%) and represent 29% of youth in DSS custody. We will develop and implement a three-level model. The 1) Service Level will ensure that at least 650 youth with a range of 100-195 per year are served with EBPs (HFW and others). We will also put in place a statewide screening process to screen 6,000 children. In addition, 4 established HFW teams that are struggling will be supported to improve recruitment, fidelity, and impact. The 2) Collaborative Level will engage 60 County SOC Collaboratives (CSC) throughout NC. CSCs will receive training and help to apply for scholarship dollars that will improve SOC and Results Based Accountability (RBA) knowledge and capacity. 12 CSCs struggling with RBA and data management will be provided with intense support to increase infrastructure, data management, and RBA capacity through community projects that raise awareness of HFW teams. The 3) Policy Level will engage a SOC Advisory Council (SOCAC) to address grant goals and objectives and will become a permanent governing body on SOC/CCMHS for the state. The preliminary SOCAC structure will prioritize Youth and Family Voice identified problems, generate proposed solutions, develop data-informed projections of proposed solution impact on outcomes, cost, and youth/family satisfaction. The process will be entirely youth/family-guided. With this approach, we will 1) ensure policy and legislative support; 2) improve community support via CSC-led projects raising awareness of services for youth with SED; 3) routinely assess for, identify and work with local stakeholders to meet resource needs; 4) increase service delivery to include HFW and needed services to at-need regions; 5) and, ensure that direct services for youth and families are of the highest quality. Implementation and Evaluation support will 1) collect, manage, and report data for performance measurements and Continuous Quality Improvement; 2) complete all documentation outlined in application; 3) provide sustainability planning and needs assessments; and 4) complete an integrated systems, process, and outcome evaluation. Four goals, each with multiple measurable objectives will be targeted to meet identified needs: 1) Expand and formalize the screening to service continuum for CCMHS through screening, linkage, and service delivery while using data to identify common and emergent mental health, substance use, and resource needs, and tailor interventions accordingly; 2) Establish and support sustainability of two new HFW teams and improve performance of four established HFW teams; 3) Assess, engage, and support county CSCs to conduct effective projects to raise community awareness of services for youth with SED; and 4) Establish an SOCAC as a permanent statewide body by the end of the grant period to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of NC's SOC to care for young people with SED.
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).