New York State Enhancing the Quality and Integration of Treatment for Youth (NYS EQuITY) - The New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports (NYS OASAS) Youth and Family TREE project, titled Enhancing the Quality and Integration of Treatment for Youth (EQuITY), will expand and enhance the substance use service continuum for transition age youth (ages 16-25) with a substance use disorder (SUD) and/or co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders (COD) and their families. NYS OASAS will increase the ability to provide a full continuum of accessible and effective trauma-informed treatment, early intervention, and recovery services for this population and their families by promoting the use of evidence-based practices and service enhancements to family therapy, screening and assessment, tobacco cessation, recovery housing, and wrap around services. Over the course of five years, OASAS will partner with provider sites across New York State to implement a trauma-informed and person-centered approach to providing Motivational Enhancement Therapy/Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (MET/CBT), Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT), Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT), and enhancing the use of medication assisted treatment (MAT), especially for opioid and alcohol use. The SAMHSA toolkit for smoking cessation will also be used to screen youth and their families for tobacco use disorder (TUD) and expand access to smoking cessation medications.
It is expected that services through the Youth and Family TREE grant will be provided to a minimum of 50 transition age youth (TAY) in Year 1 and 100 TAY in each subsequent year, totaling 450 youth served. OASAS will develop systems and procedures deemed necessary to sustain these proposed services beyond the five-year grant period, including extensive staff training on the aforementioned evidence-based practices and screenings.
Specific goals of Youth and Family TREE include: (1) increase access to evidence-based substance use treatment services for youth and their families, (2) introduce the use of a comprehensive, family-centered treatment program for TAY with substance use and/or co-occurring mental health disorders, (3) promote the use of Recovery Support Services for youth, (4) improve access, service delivery and outcomes for youth vulnerable to health disparities, (5) expand sustainable recovery housing for youth, (6) emphasize female and ethnic minority access to services, and (7) increase access to primary care, mental health, and other supportive services.
