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Lycoming Clinton Joinder Board Project Abstract Summary Project Name- FY 2023 Grants for Expansion and Sustainability of the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children with Serious Emotional Disturbances The Lycoming-Clinton Joinder Board is a social service agency responsible for providing State-mandated services and supports to residents of Lycoming and Clinton Counties. In collaboration with system, agency, county partners, families, youth and transition-age youth, the Joinder desires to implement the System of Care (SOC) approach funded by a grant from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHS) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in our bi-county area to create and augment a sustainable infrastructure that provides resources for children, birth to 21 who are at risk for or experiencing serious emotional disturbances (SED). Developing the SOC approach using trauma-informed evidenced- based and best practices, family-driven, multi-system integration, cultural and linguistical competence methods along with data-driven, quality, and effective outcome measures will allow the children in our counties to have the top standards available along with reducing ongoing costs associated with unmet therapeutic needs. We believe that individuals and their families have within their own power the ability to adapt and to deal with life's inevitable stresses and difficulties. The mission with which we are charged is to cultivate those adaptive skills to empower individuals and families in their community in a manner and setting which respects human dignity. Strategies/interventions: Increased EBP Trainings facilitated by SOC Lead Trainer for Providers/Agencies and Families, coordination and implementation of leadership team with 50% representation from youth and families with lived experience, development of a coordinated interagency support team that will serve 200 children and their families throughout the project and implementation of a HIPPA compliant cross-system data platform with 100% trained users to collect, monitor, analyze, and report 100% of required data and project outcomes on a quarterly basis, annually. In addition, see SMART goals. Project goals: Develop a leadership team, develop a Mission, Vision and a Plan, engage system partners, youth and families, create a strategic plan based on mapping of our community and population focus, develop a communication and social marketing plan, develop a means for evaluation, quality assurance and continual improvement, Develop ongoing and braided funding sources, Develop ongoing training and use of TA or intensive TA and use of developed SMART goals. Measurable objectives: Decrease in higher levels of care as evidenced by claims data, increased family and youth voice in treatment as evidenced by initial and ongoing youth and family satisfaction questionnaires, increased cooperation between agencies as evidenced by engagement in proper levels of care and decreased use of Crisis and Emergency Departments. Decreased justice-involved youth with an SMI, evidenced by reporting data. Increased quality of services using trauma informed, evidence-based, cultural, and linguistic competency and SOC principles, evidenced by training. Creation of cross-system information platforms to help with quality, service, and reporting, evidenced by reports generated through the platform. In addition, see SMART goals.

The proposed project known as the K - 12 Mental Health Awareness Partnership (MHAP) will focus on all K-12 students enrolled within 18 Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) and 3 Area Vocational Technical Schools (AVTS) across a five-county region in rural central Pennsylvania, with emphasis on those youth with serious mental illness (SMI) and serious emotional disability (SED). There will be a combination of evidence-based programs (EBPs) implemented to address the needs of these populations. Specifically, Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) and Question-Persuade-Refer (QPR) will be provided through the project. Further, these EBPs will be aligned with the scale up of the Positive Behavior Intervention and Support framework across these LEAs/AVTS within this five-county region. The individuals to receive mental health awareness training will be 1) educational staff (e.g., professional educators, counselors/nurses/psychologists/social workers/school resource officers, building and central office administrators, cafeteria workers, bus drivers and secretaries) that interact directly with K - 12 students in the 18 Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) and 3 Area Vocational Technical Schools (AVTS) that comprise a large geographic region in Pennsylvania including Columbia, Montour, Snyder, Union and Northumberland counties in tandem with 2) members from targeted community organizations that provide support to youth and their families in the region (e.g., local law enforcement, medical professionals, and faith-based leaders).This rural region is comprised a total population of 264,674 residents, 29,672 of which are school-age youth. There are 3,905 instructional administrative and support staff employed by the 18 LEAs and 3 AVTS within this five-county region. These LEA/AVTS employees are comprised of professional educators (e.g., teachers, principals, mental health clinicians) as well as other staff (e.g., para-professionals, cafeteria workers, clerical assistants). The goals of the project are to 1) increase the capacity of the LEAs/AVTS staff within this five-county region to increase help seeking behaviors of, and for, youth who appear to indicate signs of depression and suicide risk, and 2) increase the capacity of targeted community members across this rural region to help youth with emphasis of those youth with SMI/SED who appear to display signs of depression and suicide risk to access mental health assessments in order to leverage mental health supports and services. The objectives of this project are to provide training in YMHFA and QPR to the critical mass of educational staff and strategic portions of targeted community groups. This will be accomplished by establishing a sustainable network of YMHFA and QPR trainers within this 5-county region. This training provided through this regional network will result in 450 educational staff and 90 targeted community members completing training in the first year, with 2,250 educational staff and 450 targeted community members completing training by the end of the project. The impact of these trainings will be gauged through pre-post assessments associated with trainings across the EBPs in tandem with analyses of referral rates in both the schools and community.