Transition-aged youth community practices

1. Transition-aged youth community practices Two things our parents said: get a job and stay in school Maine Medical Center Department of Vocational Services March 6, 2008Richard M. Balser, M.A. CRCChristine McKenzie, M.Ed. Not for Distribution

2. In Maine in 2005 7% of teens ages 16-19 were not attending school and were not working “Teens who are neither in school nor employed are disconnected from the roles and relationships that help young people transition to adulthood. As a result, these young people tend to have a harder time connecting to the job market as young adults, which increases the risk that they will have lower earnings, and a less stable employment history than their peers who stayed in school or found jobs.” Sources: Annie E. Casey Foundation, KIDSCOUNT Indicator Brief: Reducing the Number of Disconnected Youth, www.aecf.org Not for Distribution

3. America’s Learning Deficit The costs of a poor education: • A high school dropout earns about $260,000 less over a lifetime (present value in current dollars) than a graduate and pays about $60,000 less in taxes. • With 23 million high school dropouts between the ages of 18 and 67, that means that federal and state governments lose more than $50 billion a year in taxes. • America forgoes $192 billion, or 1.6% of gross domestic product, in combined income and tax revenue a year with each group of 18-year-olds who never complete high school. Increasing the educational attainment of those groups by one year would recoup nearly half those losses. • The average 45-year-old high school dropout is in worse health than the average 65-year-old high school graduate. • High school dropouts have a life expectancy that is 9.2 years shorter than graduates. Not for Distribution

4. “Few things are more harmful to a person’s physical and mental health than long-term unemployment. Numerous studies within the past two decades show significant correlations between long-term unemployment and negative personal results, such as increased hospitalizations, increased substance abuse, incidence of depression, lower self-esteem, and increased anxiety. Unemployment is bad for you.” Joe Marrone, Institute for Community Inclusion Not for Distribution

5. Maine Governor’sChildren’s CabinetChair, First Lady Karen Baldacci • Youth in Transition, expand, coordinate and strengthen • supports for youth ages 14-24, with the goal to ensure that EVERY youth and young adult, especially those with few assets and high risk factors such as substance abuse, mental health issues, academic failure, or marginalized in any way, is connected to a permanent home, family, and community through collaborative wrap-a-round planning partnerships between the Children’s Cabinet agencies, families, schools, and communities. Priorities • Early Childhood – with the goal to create coordinated and humane systems and policies at the state and local level and to ensure quality early childhood services to all young children. Not for Distribution

6. Transition Related Self-Evaluation Survey Not for Distribution

7. Transition Linkage Coalition (TLC) The TLC’s broad goals were: • To identify barriers to smooth transitions from the youth to adult mental health systems. • To flesh out the Action Plan which requires the support of multiple service systems; and • To assist with making the Youth in Transition project sustainable. Not for Distribution

8. TLC Recommendations 1.Create a mental health services category for adolescents and young adults ages 14-25. Services are designed to be developmentally driven. Services focus on education, accommodation, treatment, employment, and independent living skills. Transition Facilitators are trained to specifically work with the issues surrounding this population. A Transition Facilitator is assigned to each client. 2.Provide support to youth with mental health problems in schools through the 504 Reasonable Accommodations route (rather than through Special Education) whenever appropriate. Explore supplemental state funding streams that would support necessary 504 accommodations for students with mental health issues. Funds should be allocated to support the student in the least restrictive setting. 3.Increase education for all youth on mental illness and mental health beginning in middle school and continuing through high school. 4.Family involvement is key to successful outcomes. Families should be aware of supports. There should be mass advertising of “211”. 5.Transportation, translation, and interpretation and other potential barriers should be addressed consistently in each youth’s case plan. These issues should be considered to see if they are pertinent as potential barriers to receiving services. 6.Licensing changes need to be considered to expand housing options for transitional aged youth and young adults. Create a licensing category to allow young adults 15-25 to be housed in the same residence. 7.Implement statewide Odyssey-like evidence-based programs. Transition aged youth and young adults who have been treated at an inpatient psychiatric facility should have available transitional support services.8.Provide training for all case managers relative to transition services. Develop core values and direction for providing transition services. Expand the use of evidence-based practices among other services available to transition based youth and young adults. Make available training and support to providers in the community addressing core values and agreed upon services delivered for transition-aged youth and young adults. Evidence-based practices geared to transition based youth and young adults. The term ‘provider’ includes, but is not limited to, agencies, facilities, and schools. Not for Distribution

9. TLC Recommendations (cont’d.) 9.Look at needs from the perspective of youth and families. • Educate and empower families to enable them to identify and use formal and informal supports they need. • Actively involve young people in their treatment planning. • Use a strengths-based rather than deficit-based approach • Empower young people to bring a friend or support person to planning meetings • Consider “best practice” for a youth with mental illness as one in which he youth is involved in school, in work, in psychiatric treatment, and has significant personal connections and social supports. • Make sure that reliable transportation for youth is available and addressed in every plan. 10. Make Transition a focus for all students and begin at grade 6. • Focus on practical skills young people need to function in society, such as budgeting, banking, finding an apartment, using public transportation, arranging for medical and dental care, and maintaining social relationships. Some of the recommendations as examples are: • develop grade level expectations for life skills and independent living, with school and GED credit available. • make work experiences part of the school curriculum -initiate a life-skills component for GED preparation and testing • provide equal support or reward for wellness • implement mental health programs in junior high or earlier. 11. Consider changing eligibility for DHHS Adult Mental Health Services to provide necessary supports to children exiting the DHHS children’s system. 12. Increase consistency across school districts to make GED option available to youth age 16. 13. Involve the schools with a plan for reentry when a student has been out due to mental health issues. • Implementation of a re-entry meeting with schools should be standard practice for youth who experience interruption in education. • This re-entry meeting should be applied when youth return from inpatient hospitalizations, corrections, foster care, homelessness, or other circumstances. This should build on existing statewide initiatives such as Keeping Maine’s Children Connected, Project IMPACT and the McKinney Vento Act with a goal of a seamless process for all youth and young adults. • Inpatient psychiatric hospitals should include “Back to School” groups to address what needs to occur to make reentry a positive and successful experience. 14. Partnerships between businesses and school should be developed to strengthen the roles of schools and businesses as part of the larger community. • Examples of ongoing partnerships are the Anatomy of Leadership program at Portland and Deering High Schools and mentoring programs that exist throughout the state. 15. Involve a diverse group of youth and young adults to advise the Children’s Cabinet on issues and solutions for successful transition. 16. Continue to involve the State Children’s Cabinet to support and provide direction to the identified providers/entities to implement recommendations. Not for Distribution

10. Definition of Supported Education “Education in integrated settings for people with severe psychiatric disabilities for whom postsecondary education has been interrupted or intermittent as a result of a severe psychiatric disability, and who, because of their handicap, need ongoing support services to be successful in the education environment. (Unger, 1990, p.10)” From Unger, K.V., Handbook on supported education: Providing services for students with psychiatric disabilities., 1998. Not for Distribution

11. Educational Programs The types of educational services received by Odyssey youth were: • Assistance with re-entering school • Participation in individual education plan programming • Help with arranging tutoring • Help with admissions to special schools and programs • Advocacy at school, particularly after a hospitalization Not for Distribution

12. Supported Employment Supported Employment services happen where life takes place - in workplaces, neighborhoods, stores and schools where everyone else in the community goes. Not for Distribution

13. Work • defines a place in society and gives one an identity • services as an organizing function in one’s life • gives one a stake in the modern technological world • generates economic benefits • within a normalized environment brings normalized behavior to social interactions • provides social ties • initiates developmentally appropriate activities Not for Distribution

14. Increases in Employment Of the youth remaining in the program for a year, there was a 69 percent increase in those employed. That is, at baseline about one quarter of the youth were employed, with 97 reporting, whereas at Quarter Four, 42 percent were employed, with 36 youth reporting. Not for Distribution

15. Promising Practices • Remove the age barrier and treat the population as a whole (14-25 year olds) • Develop particular intervention strategies around turning 18 – “When I turn 18, I ….” • School re-entry meetings become standard practice • Involve the whole family system • Training: Set common guidelines and develop milestones for treating 14 -25 year olds Not for Distribution

16. In Maine 5% of teens ages 16-19 are currently neither in school nor working. This is a decrease from 7% in 2005. The national rate is 8%. “Teens who are neither in school nor employed are disconnected from the roles and relationships that help young people transition to adulthood. As a result, these young people tend to have a harder time connecting to the job market as young adults, which increases the risk that they will have lower earnings, and a less stable employment history than their peers who stayed in school or found jobs.” Sources: 2008 Maine KIDS COUNT Data Book, www.mainechildrensalliance.org; Annie E. Casey Foundation, KIDSCOUNT Indicator Brief: Reducing the Number of Disconnected Youth, www.aecf.org Not for Distribution

17. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it’s the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead Not for Distribution