1. Maryland Healthy Transition Initiative
5/31/2012
Believing in Youth Services
Austin Texas 2012
John Coppola MHS
State Project Director, Maryland HTI

2. Comparison of Transition Domains Between the General Population and Young People with EBD
2/3 except employes 1/2

4. Barriers
Youth & Young Adult Level
Family Level
Community/System Level

5. Communication & need for collaboration

6. Healthy Transitions Initiative
Five year federally-funded initiative aimed at:
Designing and implementing a system of care to meet the needs of young adults with mental health needs as they transition to adulthood
Improving the capacity of communities to effectively serve these youth and young adults

7. Goals: Youth/Young Adult Improve outcomes in the areas of: Education,
Employment,
Housing, and
Decrease contacts with the juvenile and criminal justice systems

8. Community/Systems Level
Goals:
Increase awareness of community resources
Enhance capacities to meet the needs of constituents
Identify and mitigate systemic and bureaucratic barriers
Develop mutually beneficial partnerships
Ensure sustainability through adjusting policies to meet needs of communities

9. Objectives
Consistent strengths-based coordinated care to provide seamless transition into adulthood
Involvement in normative activities including employment and/or continuing education, and productive community contribution
Family education, support and empowerment

10. Healthy transitions initiative
Intensive transition facilitation includes assisting young adults to:
Recognize, develop, & utilize their personal support system
Navigate and coordinate various systems & services
Participate in self-advocacy skill instruction
Utilize naturally existing supports existing within their community

11. Youth Needs Are Front and Center
Transition facilitators are working one on one with youth in the community
Individual goals are developed and tackled one at a time, including lessons learned

12. Healthy Transitions Initiative
Collaborating organizations include:
Alcohol and Drug Abuse Administration
Child Welfare
Governor’s Workforce Investment Board
Criminal/Juvenile Justice System
Maryland State Department of Education
Maryland Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services (DORS)

13. Guiding Principles
Engage youth and young adults in planning their own future
Provide with developmentally-appropriate services and supports
Involve youth, their families, and other informal key players in a process that prepares and facilitates them in their movement toward:
O greater self-sufficiency and
O successful achievement of their goals

14. Guiding Principles
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, non-stigmatizing, and developmentally-appropriate -- building on strengths to enable the young people to pursue their goals across relevant transition domains. 3. Acknowledge and develop personal choice and social responsibility with young people

15. Guiding Principles (cont.)
4. Ensure a safety-net of support by involving a young person’s parents, family members, and other informal and formal key players 5. Enhance young persons’ competencies to assist them in achieving greater self-sufficiency and confidence. 6. Maintain an outcome focus in the TIP system at the young person, program, and community levels 7. Involve young people, parents, and other community partners in the TIP system at the practice, program, and community levels

17. Aiming for Sustainable Practices
Main collaborators requirements:
School system – individualized transition planning with measurable postsecondary outcome goals
DORS – meaningful employment for at least 90 days
MHA – medical necessity criteria and continuity of relevant interventions

18. Policy Ramifications
Align the definition of transitioning youth across state agencies
Build a system of care for transitioning youth
Youth-driven and family-guided
Individualized approach
Funding for vocational, educational and residential services
Interagency coordination
Evaluating the role of Medicaid expansion and health care reform in reimbursing the array of transition services
Providing a continuity of care among various services and throughout the transition years, including use of non-traditional services or supports (e.g., supported employment)
Bolstering workforce opportunities for behavioral health professionals trained to support the needs of transitioning youth

19. Healthy transitions initiative
Action Steps:
Take an honest look at systemic barriers
Seek out and foster strategic collaborations that will minimize bureaucratic & systemic barriers
Change policies whenever possible to support current efforts and facilitate New opportunities

20. How Do You Do This? Define population
Identify systems and organizations who serve this population
Seek potential visionary allies in the public mental health arena
Identify community resources that may have similar goals
Identify what is working and what is not working
Establish a commitment from stakeholders
Develop a shared vision(i.e. seamless transition for youth with emotional disabilities)
Make a plan and do it

21. What have we learned
Collaboration is critical
Necessary to shift locus of power & share responsibility
Look at communities with micro & macro perspective & be willing to do things differently in both perspectives

22. For more information contact
John Coppola State Director, Maryland Healthy Transitions Initiative (301)