Pee Dee Mental Health Youth in Transition Program

Mission Statement The Pee Dee Mental Health Center will provide effective mental health services to the people of Darlington, Florence, and Marion counties who are experiencing emotional or psychiatric distress. Emphasis will be directed to individuals with serious mental illness and families with emotionally disturbed children. The Center will involve itself in promoting a quality of life with enhances the mental of the people of this area, and will work cooperatively with other organizations and individuals to develop additional resources and services to carry out this mission.

Introduction Young adults experience dramatic changes across all areas of development during their transition to adulthood. Young peoples decisions, choices, and associated experiences set a foundation for their transition to future adult roles in the domains of employment, education, living situation, and community-life functioning. This population of young people have higher secondary school dropout rates, higher rates of arrest and unemployment, and lower rates of independent living compared to their peers without disabilities. Difficulties in accessing appropriate supports and services continues to plague young people and their parents and providers.

Program Overview 1. Engage young people through relationship development, person-centered planning, and a focus on their futures. 2. Tailor services and supports to be accessible, coordinated, appealing, developmentally- appropriate, and build on strengths to enable the young people to pursue their goals across all transition domains.

Program Overview cont. 3. Acknowledge and develop personal choice and social responsibility with young people. 4. Ensure a safety-net of support by involving a young persons parents, family members, and other informal and formal key players.

Program Overview cont. 5. Enhance young persons competencies to assist them in achieving greater self-sufficiency and confidence. 6. Maintain an outcome focus in the YTP system at the young person, program, and community levels.

Successful /recovery transition includes four Transition Domains: The three setting domains ( Employment, Education, and Living Situation ) and the one Community Life Functioning domain shown in this figure are useful in capturing young peoples attention and their focus on their futures. The Community Life domain encompasses the individuals personal effectiveness/wellbeing and other skills and resources that are relevant to ones success in each of the other domains, as well as for community-life functioning.

Warning Signs Confused thinking Long-lasting sadness or irritability Extremely high and low moods Excessive fear, worry, or anxiety Social withdrawal Dramatic changes in eating or sleeping habits Strong feelings of anger Delusions or hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that are not really there) Increasing inability to cope with daily problems and activities Thoughts of suicide Denial of obvious problems Abuse of drugs and/or alcohol

Services A full array of outpatient services will be provided to assist clients in the Youth in Transition Program including: Diagnostic Assessment Group Therapy Individual Therapy Family Therapy Rehabilitative Psychosocial Service Crisis Intervention Psychiatric Mental Assessment Medication Monitoring Nursing Services Targeted Case Management

Clientele years old Male and female Individuals impacted by mental and/or substance use disorders.

Staff/Training Each staff member is creative, has extensive experience, education and training in the field of mental health. The professional staff have a critical role to play in helping the youth navigate their way through the various uncoordinated service tunnels, avoid transition cliffs and connect them with the appropriate resource.

Kengi Stevenson, MA Youth in Transition Pee Dee Mental Health 125 E. Cheves St. Florence, SC