Workforce Activities in Action (WA'A): Building Capacity for CAMHD's Youth Through Equity - The Hawai'i State Child and Adolescent Mental Health Division (CAMHD) has utilized the system of care (SOC) approach for decades. The proposed grant, Workforce Activities in Action, is intended to further enhance these efforts and promote behavioral health equity through (1) infusion of evidence-based and culturally appropriate practices, (2) integration of youth and caregiver lived expertise into system design, and (3) multilevel interagency collaboration. CAMHD has longstanding experience incorporating evidence-based and culturally appropriate practices within a statewide public mental health system to serve youth with severe emotional disturbances (SED). CAMHD has made strong progress toward the early adoption and implementation of several well-known evidence-based practices (e.g., FFT, MST, TF-CBT, CBTp, MBC), and the use of a integrated knowledge management system to inform clinician decision-making yet has faced numerous provider workforce shortages in recent years. This has resulted in youth experiencing lengthy waitlists, risking a decline in functioning and an initiation of services at a higher level of care than initially necessary. Additionally, youth in the system have experienced ongoing historical trauma and cultural oppression, and significant stressors following the COVID-19 pandemic and the Maui wildfire disaster. Thus, the proposed grant is designed to (a) enhance workforce capacity (i.e., investment in the workforce via meaningful professional development, novel reimbursement strategies, and a sustainable recruitment infrastructure), (b) increase training in evidence-based practices and processes, (c) strengthen care coordination to improve family and youth engagement and practice-level interagency coordination, (d) elevate the voice of youth and caregiver peers with lived expertise, (e) increase access to evidence-informed and culturally appropriate supports that promote social, cultural, and/or environmental connectedness, (f) strengthen system-level interagency collaboration to support implementation and sustainability of the SOC approach, and (g) ensure effective dissemination and implementation of grant and SOC goals via proactive continuous quality improvement. The proposed grant will serve 25 (Year 1), 50 (Year 2), 75 (Year 3), and 100 (Year 4) multiethnic youth with SED and significant functional impairment in the East Hawai‘i and Maui Family Guidance Centers for a total of 250 youth.
