Community Engagement Institute part of $9 million Federal System of Care Grant to improve Youth Mental Health Services
This grant seeks to improve behavioral health outcomes for children and youth (birth-21) with serious emotional disturbances (SED) and their families.
To meet these goals, the center will partner with four community mental health centers in Kansas and contract with the Kansas Department for Aging and Disabilities Services (KDADS), the grant recipient.
The four mental health centers are Compass Behavioral Health, WyanDOT Center, Sumner Mental Health and South Central Mental Health. They will, in turn, partner with local and regional organizations, families and youth to address the needs of severely emotionally disturbed children and youth.
John Hostetler, director of Mental Health at KDADS, notes that this partnership "will allow Kansas communities to improve the lives of SED children and youth through integration of strengths-based, family-centered and culturally competent care driven by the families themselves."
According to a 2014 SAMHSA report, up to 21,000 adolescents in Kansas faced serious depression within that year, 58 percent of whom did not receive treatment. That same year, 89 percent of youth struggling with substance use issues did not receive treatment.
Services supported through federal System of Care grants are to be youth-guided, family-driven, trauma-informed, culturally and linguistically competent, community based and best-practice oriented.
The Center for Behavioral Health Initiatives will offer capacity building support and training for all Kansas SOC grant partners through on-site assistance and via a learning collaborative both in person and online.
According to Randy Johnson, director of CBHI, "This work is really about more than improving just mental health services. Our partners, including the kids and parents who benefit, will be creating new solutions that make sense in their communities and cut across all the systems involved in helping children with emotional or behavioral challenges."
The CMHCs have expressed their excitement as well. "I see this as a real opportunity to expand our services and collaborate with the Community Engagement Institute, KDADS and other CMHCs, as well as youth and family leadership across the state," said Randy Callstrom of WyanDOT Center.
Scott Wituk, executive director of the Community Engagement Institute, states, "We've worked with the mental health service system for over 20 years. This grant builds upon that foundation while creating new opportunities for us, the CMHCs and the Kansas mental health system."
For more information, contact Randy Johnson, director of the CBHI at randy.johnson@wichita.edu.