By Dave Stafford, Herald Bulletin Staff Writer
ANDERSON, Ind. — Young people with mental, emotional or behavioral problems, and their families, may be able to get help through a new program that connects to a wider network of service providers.
Aspire Indiana — formerly the Center for Mental Health — is coordinating the Community Alternatives to Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facilities grant.
Thursday, community stakeholders from school officials to those representing local medical, social services and justice organizations, gathered to talk about how the grant could extend the reach of services to those who most need them.
“The community team develops a system of care that’s based on family strengths,” said Tomerial Brooks, child and adolescent services manager and systems of care coordinator at Aspire Indiana.
That includes help for the student and the family that can include:
-- Training and support for the child and his or her care providers.
-- Respite care, providing care providers short-term breaks.
-- Flexible funds for one-time expenses related to a child’s plan of care.
-- “Wraparound facilitators” who connect families with help and services, including crisis and emergency planning and intervention.
Indiana is one of 10 states where the program is being offered. Mason Hutcheson is a wraparound facilitator who helps families determine the kind of help they need and build a team of community members around those needs. The goal is to keep young people at home and out of residential facilities that can cost $321 a day.
The grant, Hutcheson said, marks a shift in policy by trying to connect with providers who can better serve children at lower costs.
Brenda Hamilton, executive director of the Indiana Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health, said the program’s aim is to approach solving problems differently. Parents and their children choose the providers they want to work with, and more.
The program, she said, asks families, “‘What do you need, what does your child need, to be a success, and continue to stay in the community?’”
Brooks said the program was a demonstration that aims to prove that marshaling community resources to respond to young people with the greatest behavioral, emotional and mental health needs makes more sense and saves more money than placing them in psychiatric treatment facilities.
She said Aspire Indiana also was looking for people interested in training to work with young people and their families who will be assisted through the grant.
Contact Dave Stafford: 648-4250, dave.stafford@heraldbulletin.com.
