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June 1, 2022
In this issue ...
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I want to express the shock and horror I felt hearing the news of the tragedy at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. I feel for all of us: for our children, our families, and our community. As a team the Child and Family Behavioral Health (CFBH) unit stand in solidarity with so many others who have experienced loss from gun violence. There is help and resources for both adults and youth processing this grief. Please know that you are not in this alone.
The Dougy Center has a variety of grief support resources for young children, teenagers, young adults, and families including several resources specific to supporting youth after a school shooting or large-scale tragedy.
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The Oregon Youth Line is a free, confidential helpline for young people where no problem is too big or too small. The National Disaster Distress Helpline (1-800-985-5990) is available 24/7 dedicated to providing crisis counseling after any disaster.
The Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress offers a list of additional national resources and SAMHSA offers tips for talking to children and youth after traumatic events.
The Oregon Department of Education provides these resources to support mental health and social support for students and families.
Please reach out if you or a loved one needs support.
It feels hard to move forward past this moment, but the end of the school year is approaching, and summer break is around the corner. For me, having a kindergartner has given me a new appreciation of how hungry our young people are for meeting others, learning new skills, and getting started on their own journeys. During the pandemic it felt like we were all facing inwards and now we are finding ways to embrace returning to connection with each other. Like my kindergartener, I took my first steps: attending the Oregon Alliance Annual Summit, focused on health equity, in early May. For me, and many of the attendees, this was our first-time being part of an in-person group since the beginning of the pandemic. It brought up lots of feelings for me. After two days of inspiring speakers, a panel of deeply wise young adults, and connecting with providers and partners, I was re-energized. The important work we do towards safety, health and well-being of children is meaningful.
As agencies we continue to hold our commitments to transform Oregon. Below is a picture of key children’s System of Care champions showing up for this work at the Oregon Alliance summit.
Chelsea Holcomb
Pictured from left to right: Aprille Flint-Gerner, Deputy Director, Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) Child Welfare; Chelsea Holcomb, Oregon Health Authority (OHA) CFBH Director; Rebecca Jones Gaston, ODHS Child Welfare Director; Chelas Kronenberg, Case Management Services and Supports Manager, ODHS Office of Developmental Disabilities Services; Jessie Eagan, OHA CFBH Manager; and Lilia Teninty, Director, ODHS Office of Developmental Disabilities Services.
Students are more likely to develop a sense of belonging and to engage in a school when their environment is safe, supportive and respectful. Across the state, schools and districts have partnered with local community mental health agencies to create active learning environments. Investments from the Oregon Legislature continue to support these agencies in providing school-based mental health (SBMH) services. Research shows that these services promote health equity, reduce racial and ethnic disparities and enhance engagement among youth who face barriers to accessing care.
SBMH providers offer rapid crisis and clinical mental and behavioral health interventions. They work alongside teachers, school staff and existing support services to provide professional development on topics such as mental and behavioral health, trauma and suicide prevention.
Highlighted by SBMH clinicians, the following examples illustrate how existing school-community partnerships help create a safe and supportive school climate for students.
Jessica Catellier, SBMH clinician in Wasco County, has seen more engagement from students and deepened relationships with schools. She says, “Our biggest success has been the ability to provide more thorough and equitable services for our community. This includes students and/or staff having more direct contact with someone they are familiar with when they have an in-school crisis. This helps with their willingness to be open, especially around having thoughts of suicide." This program also identified individuals and families that need more immediate support.
Including SBMH staff in school meetings between staff and parents and in in-service trainings is a positive for the whole community in Gilliam County. “Staff ask questions and request classroom support, and they refer students,” says Sammi Lane, SBMH clinician. “The superintendent has created a leadership team for this next school year and has asked for me to be a part of the team."
A Kindness Club has been the brainchild of Rikki Griffin, SBMH clinician at Elgin High and Middle School in Union County. Fifteen students participated and recently created bookmarks with positive messages and kindness quotes. This activity “promotes a sense of kindness at home, school and in the community, acknowledges students and staff through random acts of kindness and spreads kindness through student-led projects,” says Rikki. “As I was looking at these bookmarks today, it made me feel happy and proud of the students who participated.”
For more information, visit our website, or contact Fran Pearson at fran.pearson@dhsoha.state.or.us.
Kindness Club bookmarks
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary visits Portland to talk about the "nation’s mental health crisis”
On May 5, several youth suicide prevention champions met at the crisis call center Lines for Life, to speak about the needs of children and families. Lines for Life is a 24-7 hotline for people struggling with addiction, suicidal thoughts and other mental health issues. Lines for Life will play a key role in transitioning the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline to its new three-digit form: 988.
The new line is launching July 16. Its purpose is to make calling for help during a mental health crisis more like calling 911 for emergency response. The line will increase access to free counseling and should reduce the strain on emergency departments. Last year, more than 21,000 teenagers across the country called Lines for Life seeking help.
Annette Marcus (Oregon Alliance to Prevent Suicide), Julie Scholz (Oregon Pediatric Society), Chris Bouneff (NAMI Oregon) and several Lines for Life staff attended the event to advocate on behalf of their programs to state and federal lawmakers and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra who were present. During his trip to the region, Secretary Becerra also promoted the billions in federal funding included in the American Rescue Plan for mental health and addiction resources.
We are working to center OHA's health equity by 2030 goal in all our CFBH work, inclusive of trauma-informed principles and practices. We are committed to centering youth and families in order to build a system designed to work for them.
The graphic above illustrates:
Youth and family at the center. They are the focus of our work. We work together with them to create and improve the Child and Family Behavioral Health system.
Health equity guides everything we do. It is integrally connected to being trauma informed.
Trauma-informed includes principles of safety, trustworthiness and transparency, use of peer support and mutual self-help, collaboration, mutuality, empowerment, voice, choice, cultural, historical and gender responsiveness.
The center is sustained by:
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Meaningful youth and family engagement.
- Cross-system work and collaboration.
- Attention to quality of care and addressing gaps.
- Using data to pinpoint areas for further improvement and to measure success in implementation.
OHA is committed to integrating the voices of youth and families with lived experience and communities of color into the work. We see gaps in equity, workforce issues, a need to create access to culturally responsive programming and treatment options, and find better, trauma-informed ways to work together.
Collaborative Problem Solving: Classes available at no charge to participants
OHA recently awarded funding to The Child Center to help families strengthen positive relationships and build the skills needed for success at home, at school, in the community and throughout life. The Child Center:
- Offers free Collaborative Problem Solving classes to Oregonians. Sessions are once a week for eight weeks.
- Is focused on providing services to seven regions in Oregon that have limited mental health provider resources.
For more information, please visit The Child Center’s website and share widely with families throughout Oregon.
Eating disorder treatment training series
Eating disorders affect 30 million Americans and 95 percent of those affected are between the ages of 12 and 25. To address the lack of knowledge and expertise on this subject among health professionals in Oregon, we have engaged Therese Waterhous, PhD, RDN, CEDRD-S, owner, clinician and trainer at Willamette Nutrition Source, LLC, to offer a seven-month virtual training series. Therese will be joined by three guest speakers to address specific health equity considerations in eating disorder treatment.
For more information, visit our website. You can register at Eventbrite. The training is open to all and you may register for as many trainings, including the entire series, as you like.
If you have questions or need more information, contact Kathleen Burns at kathleen.m.burns@dhsoha.state.or.us.
Mental health approaches to Intellectual/Developmental Disability (I/DD) trainings
In September 2021, OHA sponsored a Mental Health Approaches to I/DD Train the Trainer event. Trainings are available for our community partners. If you are interested in hosting a training for your organization, please contact Jessica Stout at jessica.l.stout@dhsoha.state.or.us.
Question Persuade Refer (QPR)
QPR Training for Trainers
Virtual training
- Wednesday, June 15, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Wednesday, Aug. 10, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Contact QPR@linesforlife.org for more information.
Youth Mental Health First Aid
Youth Mental Health First Aid Training for Trainers
- June 7 through 9, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
This is a virtual training with limited availability. If you are interested, contact Maria Pos at mpos@aocmhp.org.
Youth Suicide Assessment in Virtual Environments (Youth SAVE)
Youth SAVE for Primary Care Providers
- June 27 and 28, from 7 to 10:30 a.m.
- This is a virtual training with limited availability.
If you are interested, contact Youth.SAVE@oraap.org.
System of Care Learning Collaborative
Each second Tuesday of the month from 3 to 4:30 p.m., Oregon Family Support Network, Youth ERA and OHA facilitate a conversation for people involved with System of Care work.
Conversation topics include how to develop skills that center youth and families, how to be culturally and linguistically responsive and how to ensure services and supports are community-based. Bring your questions and a desire to learn and unlearn!
Contact Nat Jacobs at nat.jacobs@dhsoha.state.or.us for more details.
A Time for Families
A Time for Families is a weekly drop-in discussion hour for parents and family members hosted by Chelsea Holcomb and OHA’s Family Partnership Specialist, Frances Purdy.
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Click here to join the meeting (conference ID 676907).
Warmline
Reach Out Oregon, funded by OHA as part of Oregon Family Support Network, has a warm line at 833-732-2467, a website, a chat room for any family member needing support and a weekly virtual support group.
Emergency department usage
The overuse of emergency departments (EDs) as the pathway to inpatient psychiatric services and the high number of young people who wait for long periods in EDs for a bed, is an ongoing concern. The CFBH unit tracks data trends on young people who stay more than 24 hours in an ED, known as ED boarding.
We held two community conversations in May to share the July 1, 2019 through June 30, 2021 statewide data for utilization and boarding from infancy through age 25. The data show more than 10,000 visits for the year July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021, an 8 percent increase on the previous period, along with a 16 percent decrease in stays longer than 24 hours for those seeking mental health treatment. During the same time period, the data show more than 1,000 ED visits for substance use disorder, a 12 percent increase, with ED boarding falling by 20 percent over the previous year. Readmissions within 30 days continue to run at 13 to 14 percent, with the highest rates in the 18- to 25-year-old age range.
We welcome the opportunity to present this data to groups. Please contact hilary.harrison@dhsoha.state.or.us for more information.
Capacity in the children’s psychiatric and substance use disorder residential system
The CFBH unit has been closely monitoring capacity at all Oregon Health Plan child behavioral health residential facilities since spring 2021. The goal of this work is to develop a centralized access process, so we know how many children and families need services. As a result, we can identify where capacity needs to be increased to support people with the right service, at the right time.
Goal capacity:
- Acute psychiatric and psychiatric residential: 286 beds
- Substance use disorder residential: To be determined
Operational capacity as of May 7, 2022:
- Acute psychiatric and psychiatric residential: 159 beds (69% operational capacity, 56% goal capacity)
- Substance use disorder residential: 40 beds (66% operational capacity)
Projected operational capacity: Acute psychiatric and psychiatric residential
- By July 2023: 250 beds (87% goal capacity)
Mobile Response and Stabilization Services ($6.5 million)
Mobile Response and Stabilization Services (MRSS) is a customized model of response for children, youth, young adults, and their families from birth through age 20.
The CFBH unit, in consultation with partners is in the final stages of creating a children and family specific-funding formula adapted from the Public Health Modernization Funding Formula to ensure that the $6.5 million investment is equitably distributed to Oregon counties. To determine how funds are distributed, the formula assesses factors impacting youth, young adults and their families in each county including children enrolled in foster care, school absenteeism, emergency room utilization and Medicaid members under the age of 20. The money will help counties enhance their existing mobile response system by hiring and training mobile response staff in best practices. The enhanced Mobile Response and Stabilization Services are planned to be available throughout Oregon in January 2023.
Psychiatric Residential Treatment Services ($12 million)
In 2021, OHA's Legislatively Approved Budget provided funding to support investment in treatment services for Oregon’s youth and families experiencing an intensive behavioral health crisis. In the same year, the Oregon Legislature through House Bill 5024 appropriated funds to OHA for the expansion of community-based residential settings for individuals requiring a higher level of care. The planned Request for Grant Proposals (RFGP) will combine the funds to provide $12 million for the expansion of residential treatment capacity for children. The current anticipated release is June 2022 and the RFGP will be posted and accessible at Social Determinants of Health and Oregon Buys.
Restorative Services and Juvenile Psychiatric Security Review Board services
OHA continues to seek providers interested in working with this complex and dynamic group of youth. An organization would need to become, or increase capacity to become, experts in Psychiatric Treatment Services with a specialty in forensic support and collaboration with families and the court system. Young people receiving restorative services or under the Juvenile Psychiatric Review Board are generally dealing with a complex set of circumstances, and the work is both rewarding and challenging.
If you are interested in this work, please contact Jessica Stout at jessica.l.stout@dhsoha.state.or.us.
Young Adult Residential Treatment Homes ($9.2 million)
Developed in collaboration with the Intensive Services, Housing & Social Determinants of Health Unit, the Request for Proposal (RFP) focused on young adult residential treatment programs. The RFP is now in the final stage of the review process with the Office of Contracts and Procurement. This RFP focuses on:
- Centering health equity.
- Expanding the Young Adult Residential programs, including up to an additional 20 residential treatment beds.
- Developing a 10-bed Secure Residential Treatment Facility for young adults with higher acuity needs.
The RFP will be posted and accessible on Oregon Buys.
Interdisciplinary Assessment Teams ($5.7 million)
We have met with many community and system partners to gather feedback on the original concept and intention of the Interdisciplinary Assessment Team project and identifying next steps. The context for this work has changed because of COVID-19, staffing shortages and shifts in systems and supports. We continue to consider demonstration project ideas with various system partners and hope to have more options available throughout the state.
If you are interested in this work, please contact John Linn at john.r.linn@dhsoha.state.or.us.
For feedback and suggestions for our newsletter and information: kids.team@dhsoha.state.or.us
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