NEW: DCYF Receives $4 Mil Federal Grant
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Janice DeFrances, Director of the State’s Department of Children, Youth & Families (DCYF), today announced that DCYF will receive $4 million over four years from the Federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) for the Department’s System of Care Implementation. The DCYF received a four year implementation grant to support the roll out of the new Networks of Care to ensure that children and youth receive evidence-based interventions in the least restrictive community settings.
The project builds on the inclusive strategic planning process that allowed families, providers and policy makers to develop joint recommendations for serving children and youth with serious emotional disturbances as well as children and youth in child welfare and juvenile justice settings. These joint recommendations emphasized the need for a statewide, comprehensive array of clinical, care coordination and outreach services. Areas of practice to be strengthened include: reducing the amount of time that children and youth spend in out of home placement; improving response to psychiatric emergencies for children in placement; diversifying the work force serving children, youth and families to support culturally responsive care; improving screening, assessment, and treatment for children/youth with serious emotional disturbances; and assisting youth in transitioning to adulthood.
Within the DCYF, the expansion grant will support:
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST· Updating and refinement of the management information system to provide data necessary for effective operations;
· Resources to enhance Continuous Quality Improvement within the Department and among community providers;
· Enhanced capacity to analyze cost data to ensure efficiency in the use of state and federal funds.
· Robust participation of a range of family and grass roots agencies in planning and evaluating the emerging system of care.
DCYF Director Janice DeFrances stated, “Building on the hard work of our dedicated staff, this grant will allow the emerging system of care to provide each child and youth with proven, evidence-based approaches in community settings. Each child and youth will have an individualized plan that wraps customized clinical and support services around him or her and the family to improve outcomes and ensure successful transition to adulthood.”
Steven M. Costantino, Secretary of the Executive Office of Health & Human Services, said, “The Networks of Care will partner with DCYF and families to offer services and supports to each child and family according to their unique strengths and needs. The grant will help us build on families’ experiences to create a comprehensive array of accessible services to strengthen and support families and reduce or eliminate the need for out of home placements.”
DCYF Director Janice DeFrances and Medicaid Director Elena Nicolella serve as co-Principal Investigators for the project.