Friday, November 22, 2024
11/22/2024
"Early Diversion through Youth Crisis Care" ("EDYCC") is a project by Oaklawn Psychiatric Center to expand its programming and collaborations to divert youth ages 8-22 with, or at risk for, serious mental illnesses or a co-occurring disorder from the formal juvenile justice system. "EDYCC's" mission is to implement and strengthen crisis response and stabilization services in Elkhart and St. Joseph counties Indiana. We will do this to keep youth from formal juvenile justice interventions and divert them to appropriate community-based mental health and substance use disorder services and other supports. Specifically, this project will address a gap in our current crisis continuum for youth by implementing a mobile crisis team who is able to dispatch into the community to meet with a youth to deescalate and stabilize the current crisis and link to ongoing care. This project will also expand upon current collaborative partnerships to enhance existing crisis services of a 24/7 phone line and emergency shelters to create a robust crisis continuum of care grounded in system of care values and principles. It is based on the youth crisis intervention framework of: "someone to call, someone to respond, and a safe place to be." Across the project, we propose to serve 510 youth averaging 102 annually. Our goals and objectives include: (1) Building collaborative partnerships among community agencies by the development of a Behavioral Health Partnership Workgroup (BHPW) through integration of the "EDYCC" program into the existing systems of care. We will do this by: (a) Developing and implementing an annual plan to divert youth away from juvenile justice (JJ) system, and (b) Adding community partners to share resources to further the goals of "EDYCC." (2) Expanding community capacity to support its ability to implement the youth crisis intervention framework of "someone to call, someone to respond, and a safe place to be." We will do this by: (a) Training community partners in an understanding of the "EDYCC"; (b) Increasing contacts with youth at risk for crisis through the Street Outreach Program; (c) Working with law enforcement and 911 dispatch to appropriately route referrals to Oaklawn's mental health Crisis Line; (d) Providing outreach to Veteran's support service organizations to promote services to young veterans in crisis as well as veterans' children experiencing crisis that will put them at risk. (3) Diverting youth from juvenile justice system to community-based culturally relevant mental health and SUD services and other support services. We will do this by: (a) Expanding awareness and utilization of the current operational 24/7 crisis lines; (b) Engaging key partners from the mental health, law enforcement and social services sectors to collaboratively implement a mobile crisis response program for youth with behavioral health needs that will result in a reduction in law enforcement calls and increase timely access to appropriate care; (c) Implementing an evidenced based screening process (CAT) for identifying youth in crisis with behavioral health needs, so identified individuals (especially from groups disproportionately over-represented in JJ referrals) will have access to timely and appropriate mental health interventions/support; (d) Coordinating with partners to maintain dedicated safe space "facilities" for youth with behavioral health needs, ensuring participants feel safe and supported during their time in the program; (e) Implementing a crisis continuum of care for youth with behavioral health needs in crisis, that links individuals to ongoing therapeutic interventions; and (f) Establishing and implementing a comprehensive follow-up care program following a crisis incident.
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).
