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Dr. Jetmalani will be leaving his role as child psychiatric consultant to OHA in July and we asked for his reflections:
“I have had the great honor of consulting to the child and family team at OHA and the clinical team at ODHS for the past 16 years, from 2008 to 2024.
“I have advocated for programs, policies, rules and strategies driven by a child psychiatrist’s knowledge about human development from the perinatal period through young adulthood and beyond. We all do better when we have predictable, closely attuned, calm and loving relationships in our lives, and we can directly connect policy and practices with this in mind.
“Over these years I have met so many incredible, dedicated people in OHA and ODHS, advocates in the community, courageous youth and families, politicians, payers and others. As is true for child development, when all members of a system approach others with curiosity, emotional regulation and supportive expectations, we can solve major challenges from clinical dilemmas to oversight practices and policy development!
“I feel ambivalent about leaving this role at a time of such continued struggle for children and families in Oregon, but as I pursue a life with fewer intense demands, I am confident that good capable people with big hearts will continue the work in partnership with other likeminded folk. Thank you for the opportunity to serve others in this role, and never underestimate the power we all have to make a difference, together.”
The CFBH team took time at a recent retreat to celebrate Dr. Jetmalani and his many contributions to children’s behavioral health in Oregon. “It has been an honor and a pleasure to work with Ajit over many years and we will miss having him as a part of the team,” Chelsea added. As a connection to the start of the newsletter, Ajit was the first keynote speaker at the inaugural IDD Mental Health Summit in 2013.
Raven Durden at the Youth ERA Coos Drop
North Bend is home to a youth drop-in center run by Youth ERA and funded by the local coordinated care organization, Advanced Health. Last year they welcomed between 45 and 50 youth across each quarter and added 66 new young people. The Coos Drop has been open for seven years and provides a safe place for many youth in the community to meet, relax and find friends. One person who did just this is Raven Durden. They found The Drop as a 14-year-old and appreciated the space as somewhere to do artwork and hang out; some of her pieces are still on display today. They certainly did not expect then that a few years later they would feel confident and ready to be the person in charge.
A local of Coos Bay for almost 10 years, Raven returned to The Drop after services paused due to the pandemic. Before moving into the Program Manager role, they trained first as a Youth Peer Support Specialist serving local youth and gained an even greater insight to the local community and the issues that local youth face. Raven learned that issues she experienced affecting the community as they grew up, were still experienced by youth today. Through this Raven was able to use her experiences as a peer in age and experience with local youth systems to assist youth in their challenges.
Now at 21, Raven is recognized for her work and her ability to connect with others. Raven is the youngest Program Manager with Youth ERA and supervises three others. Her motto for young people is, “If I can do it, you can do it.” Raven’s clear that “You are not always where you come from.” To reach the local community, Raven and her staff are adding connections to local high schools and communities distant from The Coos Drop, so that all local youth can connect with peer supports. Important to Raven and the local community, The Drop also offers substance use peer support and connection.
Alongside this, like all Youth ERA Drop-ins, The Drop provides youth with an opportunity to pick up Narcan to counteract opioid overdose. In a rural community where drug use can be a concern, local youth appreciate the chance to carry something that might save the life of a friend or even a family member. In the relaxed atmosphere of The Drop it’s OK to talk about anything, or better still, to pick up a controller and play a game of Mario Kart with Raven.
When asked about what comes next, Raven says, “My main goal is to see the Coos Drop grow in ways of serving more youth and providing space as it’s been like a second home to me! I personally hope to continue work in this field or others like it for as long as I can!”
 According to 2022-2023 data from Oregon Department of Education, there were 552,380 students in K-12 schools. The projected student reach of the Sources of Strength programs in Oregon is 147,177 students. This means that over 26 percent of Oregon's K-12 students are in a Sources of Strength school. The program is looking forward to showing how they reached even more young people during the 2023- 2024 school year.
Oregon’s five-year maternal, child, and adolescent health (MCAH) needs assessment is underway, and we need your help! The survey linked below will help us better understand the health needs of women, children, youth, and families, including those with special health needs, and determine priorities for Oregon’s MCAH programs for the next five years.
Whether you work in a state or local agency, with a community-based organization, or are a family member yourself, your perspective is important, and we want to hear from you!
Please use this link or the QR code at right to share with us what you know about the health needs of Oregon’s women, children, youth, and families (including those with special health needs).
If you choose to complete the entire survey, it will take about 30 minutes. You can skip any sections that do not apply to you; each section takes about four to –five minutes to complete. Your answers to the survey are anonymous and no one can link your specific answers to you.
Please forward this email to any colleagues, partners, or community/family members who might like to provide input about Oregon’s maternal, child, and adolescent health needs. We want to gather feedback from as diverse a range of respondents as possible. The survey will close July 31.
Thank you very much for taking the time to contribute your knowledge and expertise. For more information about the MCAH Title V Program and Needs Assessment visit http://www.healthoregon.org/titlev. You can also visit https://www.ohsu.edu/occyshn for more information about the Oregon Center for Children and Youth with Special Health Needs’ Title V work.
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Family peer support specialists are an important part of the continuum of services offered to children, youth and their families. They provide a bridge between the world of mental health professionals and the world of a parent.
In a recent visit to Coos Bay, we spent some time with Daniella Derkaoui, who became a Family Peer Support Specialist 18 months ago. However, she has been doing peer work since before it was a career option. She was raised in Coos Bay and has two children of her own. She is bilingual and enjoys working with the local Latinx community and families with of children experiencing high mental health needs.
Julie Graves, OHA, Daniella Derkaoui, Coos Health and Wellness and Chelsea Holcomb, OHA in the child and family behavioral health lobby at Coos Health and Wellness
Daniella’s personal journey with her children was a little bumpy, building her experience navigating health, school, and mental health services for children. This lived experience helps Daniella walk alongside other families. She is an integral part of both the MRSS and Intensive In-Home Behavioral Health teams at Coos Health and Wellness. This means she spends most of her week connecting with families in their homes and the community.
Daniella ensures that families understand the services and supports they can access, get the skills training they need and feel supported by someone who has walked the walk. “I love this work because it helps families who have had systemic trauma feel less alone. When someone helping you feels like they have ‘been in your shoes’ there is a sense of comfort.” The best part of her role is that she “enjoys supporting a diverse community and learns more about the true meaning of family.”
Daniella’s families all give her high praise for her patience and perseverance. It can be hard to be a peer support specialist, but Daniella has two family and adult peer support coworkers. This helps keep her grounded. It is important to her that she remembers that she is a parent using her living experience as a part of the peer workforce. Staying true to these peer values means that she doesn’t feel like she is becoming too “professional.” She looks forward to growing further in this role and making a difference in the mental wellness and lives of even more youth and their families. She hopes to grow in the community by one day becoming a peer supervisor and helping other peer specialists navigate their peer work and life in a balanced way.
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Congratulations to Lane Shaffer, a youth involved in one of the OHA Suicide Prevention Team LGBTQ+ mini grants. Lane served in a leadership role on the youth-led All In My Head podcast and helped with the Oregon Place Matters videos on the mini-grants.
His full blog can be found on the CDC website along with links to the podcasts and videos.
We have begun outreach to expand the new Residential Capacity Monitor (RCM) program for use with more psychiatric residential providers. The goal is to have all eight psychiatric residential treatment programs and the three substance use disorder residential treatment programs using RCM by the end of this summer.
The data from RCM is a tool to see where providers need support in serving one of Oregon's most vulnerable populations. OHA and providers plan to use the data in two ways:
Capacity dashboard
In collaboration with the residential programs, OHA plans to build a public facing dashboard representing capacity on a statewide level.
We will have the ability to show, for each program,
- Daily census,
- Number of beds available,
- Number of beds blocked from use and the reasons why,
- Number of youth approved and waiting for admission,
- Number of referrals each program is working to review.
Residential provider workgroup
This will be a space for all residential providers to:
- Review their referral and intake practices,
- Review referral decisions,
- Look out for biases in decision making,
- Partner together to identify shared barriers and
- Make recommendations to OHA on solutions to those barriers.
This workgroup will be a collaborative space meant for meaningful review of this crucial data and problem-solving barriers to access.
Dr. Charlene Williams shared the following thoughts about opportunities opening to Oregon schools and families thanks to Oregon Department of Education (ODE) Summer Learning Grants. Read more here. Learn more about these grants on the ODE website.
“In Oregon, summer is another season for learning.
“[T]hanks to Gov. Tina Kotek and the State Legislature, school districts and communities throughout Oregon shifted their campuses toward Summer Learning.
“Through the state’s $30 million investment, young scholars can engage in innovative and inclusive educational opportunities over the next few months.
“This funding reaches throughout the state — including 43 school districts and 13 education service districts partnering with more than 130 community organizations — and will directly impact more than 50,000 K-12 children statewide.
“This isn’t just about addressing unfinished learning; it’s about reimagining summer as a season for deep, enriching learning experiences that go beyond traditional classroom walls.”
Many local, state and national resources are available for LGBTQIA2S+ youth and families to help them thrive as summer kicks off:
Local:
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Outside In (Portland) welcomes and encourages all from the LGBTQIA2S+ community to connect, feel seen and heard. Outside In provides free resources such as counseling, medical services and wraparound support for homeless youth and other people who have been marginalized, who meet diagnostic criteria.
- New Avenues for Youth’s Sexual & Gender Minority Youth Center (Portland) provides culturally specific support for LGBTQIA2S+ youth.
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The Next Door (Columbia Gorge) provides youth outreach in schools, life skills training and mentoring programs such as Gorge Youth Mentoring. It supports a youth advisory council, gender-affirming locker rooms and, in partnership with Columbia Gorge Pride Alliance, promotes 30 Days of Gay events as part of Pride month in June.
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Eastern Oregon Center for Independent Living (EOCIL) provides safe spaces, community building and empowerment for two-spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, with and without disabilities, and allies. As one of the largest and oldest two-spirit and LGBTQIA+ service providers and employers in Eastern Oregon, EOCIL proudly serves Baker, Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Hood River, Malheur, Morrow, Sherman, Umatilla, Union, Wallowa, Wasco and Wheeler counties.
- The Rogue Action Center is a diverse network of LGBTQ+ community members and groups in Josephine and Jackson counties. The center builds community, shifts policy and builds power. It helps folks navigate resources, closes gaps to accessing basic needs, and lifts up leadership in our communities.
- The TransActive Gender Project at Lewis & Clark Graduate School works to empower transgender and gender-expansive children, youth and their families in living healthy lives free of discrimination through a range of services and expertise.
State:
- The Oregon Youth Resource Map is designed to help young people ages 16-25 and their allies connect to youth-serving resources, organizations and leadership opportunities. The map centers youth needs and voices, and includes services for health, mental health care, housing, education and more.
- PFLAG offers quick tips to parents and caregivers for supporting their LGBTQIA2S+ children during and after the coming-out process. PFLAG also has eight chapters in Oregon. The chapters serve Eastern Oregon, Southern Oregon, Central Oregon, and the Portland metro area.
- The Family Acceptance Project works to increase family and community support for LGBTQIA2S+ youth, decrease health and mental health risks, and promote well-being. An Oregon page also is available.
National:
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The Trevor Project promotes suicide prevention and crisis intervention for LGBTQIA2S+ young people. Public education materials are available on the project’s website. The Trevor Project has achieved success in youth outreach by being a leader in using chat and text features and providing an “escape” feature on their web page.
- The CDC offers a number of professional development resources to help teachers and school staff create safe schools for LGBTQIA2S+ youth.
- The Center of Excellence on LGBTQ+ Behavioral Health Equity at the University of Maryland addresses disparities in mental health and substance use disorder treatment systems that affect the LGBTQIA2S+ community. Last year, the center published a short video on basic terminology that is important for people to know when working with those of diverse sexual orientations or gender identities.
The Trevor Project’s 2024 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ Young People.
A Practitioner's Resource Guide: Helping Families to Support Their LGBT Children
SAMHSA national promotional video: This five-minute video highlights some of the key media wins nationwide. It also features 988 counselors discussing the value of specialized services for Spanish speakers, LGBTQIA2S+ youth and young adults, and those who use American Sign Language. The video includes clips from 988 as featured on Jeopardy and Grey's Anatomy, at White House press conferences, and by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra on the launch of 988 text and chat in Spanish.
SAMHSAIssue Brief: Expanding Peer Support and Supporting the Peer Workforce in Mental Health : This issue brief covers the benefits of peer support and inclusion of the peer workforce throughout the behavioral health continuum. The document highlights current standards and best practices for including peer support workers as an essential component of services delivery for mental and co-occurring disorders, like substance use disorder.
Wyden Investigation Exposes Systemic Taxpayer-Funded Child Abuse and Neglect in Youth Residential Treatment Facilities. This report covers the findings of a two-year investigation exposing systemic taxpayer-funded child abuse and neglect in youth residential treatment facilities across the United States.
Find events, opportunities, trainings and resources in last month’s posting on our newsletter page. Many of these trainings are also on our training opportunities web page. We will send updates mid-month — Look for the next one in your inbox on July 15.
For feedback and suggestions for our newsletter and information: kids.team@oha.oregon.gov.
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