FEDERATION OF FAMILIES SOUTH CAROLINA

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FEDERATION OF FAMILIES SOUTH CAROLINA
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What is a Statewide Family Network?

• Statewide Family Networks are funded through
  Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration
  grant dollars to transform the mental health
  service delivery system into one that is youth
  and family-driven by implementing strategies to
  produce changes through youth and family members,
  mental health care providers, and mental health
  care policy and program decision-makers.

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Importance

• 4 million youth suffer from a major mental
  illness. U.S. Surgeon Generals Report, 1999
• One in ten children and adolescents has a mental
  illness severe enough to cause some level of
  impairment. Yet, only about one in five of them
  receive mental health services in any given year.
  U.S. Surgeon Generals Conference on Childrens
  Mental Health, 2000
• Among children ages 9-17, there are one or two
  with serious emotional problems in virtually
  every classroom in the country. Presidents New
  Freedom Commission on Mental Health, 2002

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State Statistics

• On South Carolina Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 20
  of boys and 33 of girls in high school reported
  that during the past year, they had felt so sad
  and hopeless almost every day for two weeks or
  more that they stopped doing some usual
  activities
• According to SC Kids Count, in the state there
  are 12 or 62,442 seriously emotionally disturbed
  9-17 year olds with substantial functional
  impairment and 8 or 41,628 with extreme
  functional impairment
• During FY 06, the total number of children served
  by community mental health centers was 33,635.
  Of this number, 29,885 were diagnosed with
  serious emotional disorders

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Our Grant Focus
The Federation of Families of South Carolina
(FFSC) has been funded to continue to coordinate
the Statewide Family Network project, South
Carolina Technical Assistance Center (SCTAC) for
Community Family Networks. This project provides
technical assistance, statewide, to families of
children and adolescents with/or at risk of
serious emotional disturbances by making
available information, training and support.
FFSC staff works to connect family members in
communities with each other to develop Community
Family Networks (CFN). Technical assistance is
based on a network needs assessment of each CFN.
SCTAC provides technical assistance to
strengthen the twenty-three existing CFNs and to
develop new CFNs. CFNs provide families with
an opportunity to network with and learn from
other family members who have, or have had,
similar experiences. This not only gives family
members support regarding their childs needs
which they may otherwise not have, but it
provides an opportunity for them to learn how to
advocate for their child in systems and connect
with services and interventions available in
their community.
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Our Grant Focus (contd)

• Technical assistance provided includes
  development training to assist networks in making
  community contacts and developing CFNs that will
  collaborate with community policymakers and
  service providers. Training is provided to
  educate family members, as well as providers, on
  the importance of systems of care development and
  family and youth-driven care principles.
  Information, training is also provided regarding
  the mental health needs of the child and family.
  FFSC puts works diligently to provide services
  that are culturally and linguistically
  appropriate to the family.
• The FFSC also works with agencies on projects to
  develop systems and services for this population
  of families by having SCTAC staff participate on
  committees representing the family voice,
  identifying family members to participate on
  committees and providing training such as On the
  Road to Family-Driven Care to family members and
  professionals.

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Accomplishments

• As the SCTAC one role is to provide input of the
  family voice as well as identify, train and
  engage family member participation in
  collaboration with agency projects and
  initiatives that will expand and enhance service
  delivery and systems development. Several state
  agency projects have been ongoing over the last
  several years. Without Federation staff funded
  by the SFN grant there would have been no family
  participation who were trained and knowledgeable
  of systems development and family and
  youth-driven principles. Of the three following
  projects, the SCTAC staff has participated in
  numerous planning meetings and been instrumental
  in providing information in support of family and
  youth-driven definitions and principals, none had
  contracted with a family organization to
  participate in planning and development.

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Accomplishments (contd)

• South Carolina Department of Mental Health
  (SCDMH) is the grantee of the Substance Abuse and
  Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
  Statewide Infrastructure Grant (SIG), the SCDMH
  OASIS Project. This project is to involve youth
  and families in the development of community
  based services that meet the needs of communities
  throughout the state. It has been important that
  the SCTAC Program Coordinator has participated
  and given input to this committee regarding the
  importance of youth and family involvement and
  the definitions of youth guided and youth and
  family-driven care. The advisory committee is
  gradually grasping the level of involvement that
  youth and families should have in this process.
  However, without a trained family member at the
  planning table this project would have
  undoubtedly taken a different approach. A
  proposal to engage a family organization to
  assist with youth and family involvement was
  developed in the fourth year of the grant and a
  contract was recently been awarded to FFSC.

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Accomplishments (contd)

• The South Carolina Department of Alcohol and
  Other Drugs (SCDAODAS), is the recipient of a
  SAMHSA grant, the State Adolescent Substance
  Abuse Treatment Coordination Grant known as the
  SAC Grant. This grant, Breaking Barriers,
  Building Dreams was awarded to close gaps and
  eliminate barriers that exist within the
  adolescent treatment system for mental health
  and alcohol and drug abuse. A large percentage
  of youth with serious emotional disturbance are
  identified with co-occurring drug and alcohol
  abuse problems. FFSC was invited to participate
  on the Family Advocacy Committee for this project
  in late 2006. A presentation by the SCDAODAS
  staff, described the project as youth and
  family-driven. Staff members clearly did not
  have a comprehensive understanding of the
  definition or concepts of a youth and
  family-driven system. SCDAODAS staff members
  were later provided information that included the
  FFCMH and SAMHSA Federal definition of a family
  member and youth-guided and youth and
  family-driven systems. Provision of this
  information resulted in a contract with FFSC
  staff to provide the Shifting Gears to Family
  Driven Care training to the Breaking Barriers,
  Building Dreams full committee. There have also
  been two contracts with FFSC to assist with
  family member travel to national conferences for
  training. SCDAODAS had discussed contracting with
  the FFSC to provide training and assistance for
  families through the SAC grant however in the
  final year of the grant they have decided to
  maximize their remaining funds and partner with
  the SCDMH OASIS project to access training and
  family involvement through the SCDMH family
  organization contract

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Accomplishments (contd)

• The Behavioral Health Quality Improvement
  Workgroup was developed by the South Carolina
  Department of Health and Human Services (SCDHHS)
  in 2005 to explore the expense and fragmentation
  of services to the population of children and
  youth with serious emotional disturbance in South
  Carolina. The FFSC has participated on this
  committee from the beginning as the family voice
  for this population of children, youth and
  families. The concern and consensus of this
  committee led to the application of a Home and
  Community Based Waiver grant. SCDHHS has been
  very appreciative of the involvement and input
  from FFSC and the ability to bring youth and
  family members who receive behavioral health
  services in South Carolina to share their
  experience and needs with the committee, as well
  as participate during the writing of the waiver
  grant. The grant was awarded to SCDHHS in
  September 2007

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Our Partners

• FFSC has developed a strong collaboration with
  the SC Department of Education, Office of
  Exceptional Children (SCDOE). A Federal seed
  grant of 10,000.00, was applied for though the
  IDEA Partnership to develop a project that would
  strengthen relationships between education,
  mental health and families. The SCDOE received
  this grant and contracted with FFSC to administer
  the grant and involve families. Staff members
  from each agency were identified to work on this
  project. The funding initially for one year has
  now been extended for three years. The primary
  partners have now expanded to include SC
  Department of Juvenile Justice (SCDJJ). All four
  primary partners attended the national meeting of
  grantees this year to share, and receive
  information. As a result, a state committee was
  formed that has been named the Shared Agenda.
• This committee has now expanded to include other
  child serving agencies SCDHHS, South Carolina
  Department of Health and Environmental Control,
  Maternal and Child Health (SCDHEC), South
  Carolina Department of Social Services (SCDSS),
  SCDAODAS, Governors Office Continuum of Care for
  Emotionally Disturbed Children (COC), other
  family organizations invited to participate are
  National Alliance for Mentally Ill of South
  Carolina (NAMISC), Mental Health America of South
  Carolina (MHASC), System of Care-YouthNet Family
  Organization, Voices of South Carolinas Children
  and Prevent Child Abuse of South Carolina
  (PCASC). Most recently we have begun to include
  private providers and have had participation of
  Palmetto Behavioral Health Services. In the
  upcoming year youth will be included on the
  committee. One of the key objectives of the
  committee is to strengthen the youth and family
  voices to advocate for systems development and
  improved and expanded services.

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Our Partners (contd)

• The SCDOE has also worked closely with FFSC in
  regard to awareness of childrens mental health
  and the promotion of Childrens Mental Health
  Week (CMHW). SCDOE staff and the South Carolina
  Council for Children with Behavior Disorders
  (SCCCBD) have assisted FFSC to establish an
  annual art contest which is publicized to schools
  and mental health centers encouraging them to
  submit student artwork based on the state annual
  slogan for CMHW. The artwork is posted on an
  electronic website with information about CMHW
  and solicits electronic votes. In 2006 there
  were 19,000 electronic votes submitted. The
  winning entry of the art contest is used for the
  annual CMHW poster which is produced through a
  contract with SCDOE.
• Through collaboration established with SCDHEC,
  Maternal and Child Health, FFSC was contracted in
  2005 to purchase material providing information
  for the DHEC target population in their five
  medical home regions on the importance of
  recognizing childrens mental health and
  promoting FFSC as the organization to provide
  information, training and support to DHEC
  professionals and families. This project was so
  successful that it was expanded in 2006 to
  provide training for families and staff in the
  medical home areas regarding childrens mental
  health issues. FFSC has also begun to
  participate on the DHEC committee for Early
  Childhood Initiatives.

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Our Partners (contd)

• FFSC has held collaborative conferences with
  SCDMH and SCDOE, Office of Exceptional Children
  in alternate years since 2005. FFSC provided
  scholarships which included conference
  registration, overnight accommodations,
  transportation expense, and child care as needed
  to provide families opportunity to attend. FFSC
  was one of the lead partners in the planning and
  coordination of the Summit for Shared Agenda a
  collaborative conference held in March 2007.

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Next Steps
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Contact Information
Federation of Families of South
Carolina 803-779-0402 Diane.Flashnick_at_fedfamsc.org
www.fedfamsc.org