Our Children Succeed Initiative (OCS)

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Our Children Succeed Initiative (OCS)

• Northwest Minnesota Council of Collaboratives
• Annual Meeting -- October 31st, 2007
• Brenda Anderson, Project Director
• Maureen Hams, Parent, Governance Board Member
• Colleen MacRae, Social Marketing/TA/
• Communications Director
• Tim Denny, Evaluation Specialist
• System of Care Parents, Partners and Staff

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OUR CHILDREN SUCCEED INITIATIVE
A Childrens Mental Health System of Careserving
Kittson, Mahnomen, Marshall, Norman, Polk and Red
Lake Counties 603 Bruce Street ? P.O. Box 603 ?
Crookston, MN 56716 ? [phone] ? Fax
[phone] ? www.ourchildrensucceedinitiative.
org
Our Children Succeed Initiative is a partnership
of children, youth, parents and caregivers who
promote competent and coordinated services
designed to enhance access to, and the
effectiveness of, services for children and youth
with social, emotional and behavioral concerns
and their families in Northwestern Minnesota. We
believe that services need to reflect the
culturally and linguistically diverse needs of
families served including respect for heritage,
customs, beliefs, and values of racial, ethnic,
religious and social groups in a family-driven,
youth-guided process to identify and carry out
needed services.
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• Northwest Oct. 2006
• Kittson, Polk, Marshall, Red Lake, Norman,
  Mahnomen and the White Earth Indian Reservation
• STARS for Childrens Mental Health Oct. 2005
• Benton, Sherburne, Stearns and Wright
• PACT4 Oct. 1999
• Yellow Medicine, Renville, Kandiyohi, Meeker,
  and the Upper Sioux Community

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Our Children Succeed Initiative

• Application submitted via the Northwest Minnesota
  Council of Collaboratives
• Polk County Social Services is the fiscal host
• Funded through Substance Abuse and Mental
  Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) --
  Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services
  Program for Children and their Familiesand
  administered by Childrens Mental Health Services
  Division of SAMHSA
• Funded from October 2006 September 2012, 7.5
  Million Dollars

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Grants or Cooperative Agreements awarded to
provide

• A broad array of comprehensive community based
  services for children with serious emotional,
  behavioral or mental health disorders
• To enable communities to develop local systems
  of care consisting of mental health, child
  welfare, education, juvenile justice and other
  child serving agencies

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System of Care Value Base

• System of Care is a philosophy of how care should
  be delivered
• One family one plan
• Community-based responsiveness
• Increased parent choice
• Increased family independence
• Care for children in context of families
• Care for families in context of community
• Never give up
• Build on strengths to meet needs
• An ideal System of Care model includes a
  comprehensive spectrum of mental health and other
  necessary services which are organized into a
  coordinated network to meet the multiple and
  changing needs of children and their families
• Agencies compliment each another, staff work as
  part of a childs care team

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Target Population

• Children and Adolescents who have a diagnosable
  mental health disorder and specifically
• Children with mental health issues in out-of-home
  placements
• Youth who meet the above criteria involved in 1)
  the juvenile justice system 2) the child welfare
  system
• Youth with co-occurring mental health and
  substance use/abuse issues
• Infants and young children with mental health
  issues
• Young adults (18-21) with mental health issues
• It is estimated that 1,783 children over the age
  of 9 and young adults struggle with a serious
  emotional disturbance in our region

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Overarching Goal of Our Initiative

• To bring our current System of Care to full scale
  by
• Including parents and youth as partners and
  co-decision makers
• Reaching un-served, under-served at-risk
  children, youth and young adults and culturally
  distinct populations
• Applying Evidenced Based Models of Intervention
• Evaluating the effectiveness of the system of
  care and its component services

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Governance Committee

• Reports to the Council of Collaboratives and is
  responsible for project oversight, program design
  development, monitoring and evaluation,
  appointment of other committee and team members,
  development of a grievance policy and procedures,
  periodic review of sustainability plan and meets
  monthly
• 51 of members parents, 49 CEOs and
  Superintendents

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Planning Team

• Appointed by the Governance Board and works to
  ensure all activities of the project reflect
  preferred practices related to
• strategy and implementation development
• social marketing (overseeing the development and
  implementation of a social marketing plan of
  action to increase awareness of children's mental
  health issues and to provide communication
  support linking all partners under a shared
  vision of the Our Children Succeed Initiative)
• cultural and linguistic competency (ensuring all
  activities of the project reflect preferred
  practices related to cultural and linguistic
  competence)
• interagency training/workforce development
  (continuously review all aspects of service
  delivery, assessing workforce issues and training
  needs to realize Initiative goals)
• youth and parent involvement
• training and technical assistance
• evaluation
• The membership includes the Initiative staff,
  direct care providers, parents, representatives
  from culturally diverse groups, advocacy
  organizations and representatives from the
  Council of Collaboratives.

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Objectives

• Objective 1 Reduce out-of-home and out-of-
  region placement of children with severe
  emotional disturbance by at least 50 by Year 6,
  from 237 children to 118 children.
• Objective 2 Reduce hospitalization,
  involvement in the juvenile justice system,
  homelessness and chemical abuse, while increasing
  employment, successful transition to higher
  education programs, and independent housing for
  youth and young adults ages 18 21 who
  experience severe emotional disturbance or
  co-occurring disorders.

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Objectives

• Objective 3 Reduce by 40 by Year 6, the rates
  of school truancy, school drop outs, chemical
  abuse and homelessness, with a focus on youth in
  the juvenile justice system, youth experiencing
  co-occurring disorders, and youth and young
  adults from diverse cultures with severe
  emotional disturbance.
• Objective 4 Reduce the number of young
  children at risk for developing a severe
  emotional disturbance.

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Benefits to Children and Families enrolling in
our System of Care

• Family has access to a family mentor, with an
  initial phone call occurring within 48 hours
• Child and Family will have a formal family and
  child team meeting scheduled within the first 72
  hours of referral, first meeting can be
  facilitated either by the wrap coordinator/facilit
  ator, county case manager or other individual
  involved with the family trained in the wrap
  process and approved by the family

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Benefits to Children and Families enrolling in
our System of Care

• Families choosing to participate in a universal
  intake process will see less duplication and
  reduced burden of paperwork
• If children and their families are referred for
  enrollment in the System of Care and do not meet
  eligibility criteria, a referral to existing
  community supports and services will be offered

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Specific OCS Initiative Activities Include

• Diagnostic and evaluation services
• School-based mental health assessments,
  consultation, training and crisis intervention
• Child and Family Care Team meetings via fidelity
  wrap around process
• Early childhood mental health prevention and
  intervention activities
• Expansion of Evidenced Based Interventions,
  including Functional Family Therapy, Family Group
  Decision Making

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Specific OCS InitiativeActivities Include

• Family mentors and youth leaders to help children
  and their families with questions, concerns and
  unmet needs
• Implementation of Transition to Independence
  Process (TIP)
• Intensive Care Management Services assisting
  children and families

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Specific OCS Initiative Activities Include

• System Enhancement Activities (training
  opportunities on excelling in our System of Care
  training/consultation on cultural diversity
  training on Evidenced Based Practices)
• Social marketing providing factual information
  to schools and child-serving agencies and the
  public about mental health issues
  de-stigmatizing mental health

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Other benefits

• Liaison from the MN Dept of Human Services
  assigned to our project
• Linking with the state to utilize MN Practice
  Wise an evidenced based practices data base
• Small amount of Flexible funding to help
  children and families meet treatment goals
• For our Native American population, including
  Native Healing Traditions related to our System
  of Care goals
• Tele-Mental Health Services
• Education/Training/Outreach/Information
  Dissemination to Physicians, Law Enforcement,
  Judges, Respite Providers on general and
  specific childrens mental health issues

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Year 1 Accomplishments

• Formation of our Governance Board, comprised 51
  parents and 49 Agency Executive Directors and a
  Superintendent
• Formation of an Administrative Committee
• Formation of a Planning Committee, responsible to
  the Governance Board to address Systems Issues
  regarding Cultural and Linguistic Competence,
  Evaluation, Training and Workforce Development
  and Social Marketing

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Year 1 Accomplishments

• Completed the following work plans Family
  Involvement, Clinical Services, Early Childhood
• Following work plans in process
• Cultural Competence
• Enrollment
• Dual Diagnosis
• School-Based Services
• Youth in Transition
• Youth Involvement
• Juvenile Justice
• Evaluation
• All plans include our SOC goals, objectives and
  strategies to guide service delivery.

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Year 1 Accomplishments

• OCS staff hired (see handout)
• Planning and coordination with each of the County
  Social Services Agencies who provide childrens
  mental health case management and referral
  services
• Monthly planning meetings with White Earth Tribal
  Human and Mental Health Services
• Participation in technical assistance federal
  site visits in June 2007 October 2007
• Active participation of State Liaison - Kathy
  Jefferson

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Year 2 Objectives

• Start serving children and families in Our
  Children Succeed by December 2007
• Continue Governance Board, Administrative and
  Planning Committee Meetings
• Continue to involve parents throughout the system
  as partners and co-decision makers
• Enhance our youth involvement throughout the
  system
• Continue to enhance relationships between
  child-serving agencies and school districts
• Implement Early Childhood strategies including
  training, consulting and home-visits with
  children and families

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Year 2 Objectives

• Fully utilize family mentors
• Further develop roles and responsibilities for
  youth leaders and work on a hiring plan
• Complete mental health screenings and diagnostic
  assessments on children who appear to be
  struggling with a mental health issue
• Expand intensive care coordination and in-home
  family therapy services
• Implement Youth in Transition (18-21) services
  via the Transition to Independence Process

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Year 2 Objectives

• Provide crisis intervention and consultation
• Provide school-based mental health assessments,
  training and consultation
• Implement social marketing strategies to
  de-stigmatize childrens mental health issues
• Continue to work closely with our State Liaison,
  linking our project to the MN Department of Human
  Services
• Utilize ITV and Tele-mental health, when
  appropriate

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Year 2 Objectives

• Conduct Professional, Parent and Youth Leadership
  training
• Offer workforce development training
• Implement specific childrens mental health
  trainings, based on requests and staff
  availability
• Complete a systems-wide cultural and linguistic
  competence assessment
• Engage in Evaluation to include data collection
  and feedback to partners, consumers and
  stakeholders

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Major Strengths of our Current System of Care

• Our communities already offer quick access to
  services, many home and community based services
  and excellent collaboration, cooperation and
  communication amongst agencies and schools
• Passionate and committed parents, youth, service
  providers and school personnel focused on the
  goals of this Initiative

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Greatest Potential for Growth

• Our greatest potential for growth is
• Establishing a well-coordinated Family-Driven
  System of Care
• Enhancing our communication and information
  dissemination process so that parents, youth and
  partners are well informed regarding System of
  Care activities
• Assuring that youth are involved in our System of
  Care through all aspects of services and outcomes
• Utilizing Child and Family Care teams to develop
  a plan of care for the children served
• Launching a community-based social marketing
  campaign
• Assuring the best possible outcomes for children
  and families in Northwestern Minnesota

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Contact Information

• Brenda Anderson, MSW, LICSW, Project Director,
  Our Children Succeed Initiative, Northwestern
  Mental Health Center
• banderson_at_nwmhc.org 218.281.3940
• Terri Heggie, Lead Family Contact, Polk County
  Social Services terri.heggie_at_co.polk.mn.us
  218.281.3127
• Colleen MacRae, Social Marketing/Communications/Te
  chnical Assistance Director, c/o Northwestern
  Mental Health Center
• colmacrae_at_nwmhc.org 218.281.3940
• www.councilofcollaboratives.org
• www.nwmnconnections.org
• www.ourchildrensucceedinitiative.org
• 218.281.0265