Transcript Transition-aged youth community practices

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, 2008
Richard M. Balser, M.A. CRC
Christine McKenzie, M.Ed.
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“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.”
In Maine in 2005 7%
of teens ages 16-19
were not attending
school and were not
working
Sources: Annie E. Casey Foundation, KIDSCOUNT Indicator Brief: Reducing the
Number of Disconnected Youth, www.aecf.org
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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.
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“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
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Maine Governor’s
Children’s Cabinet
Chair, First Lady Karen Baldacci
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.
• 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.
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Transition Related Self-Evaluation Survey
On a scale from 1 to 5, by the age of 18 years old it is most important for young people to:
*Gray boxes denote top priorities (averages scored with a 4.2 or higher)
Average Average
Average Average
Survey Item
Score
Score
Score
Score
Junior
Sophomore Junior
Sophomore
Males
Males
Females Females
4.4
3
3.5
3.6
1. Know how to walk safely on the streets w/o getting
into trouble
4.8
4.4
4.3
5
2. Know how to get a job
5
4.6
4.5
5
3. Graduate from high school (18-20 years old)
5
4.8
4.9
4.4
4. Be responsible for one’s own behavior, actions &
consequences. Should not be blaming others
2.8
2.8
3.3
3.6
5. Know how to cook basic meals safely
2.4
2.8
3.8
3.6
6. Know how to balance a checkbook
4.6
4.2
4.4
4.6
7. Know how to seek help when needed (ex. Know where
to go if you get lost in the city, know what to do if you
have been robbed)
3.2
2.8
3.5
3.6
8. Have a driver’s license
2
3.2
4.8
4.8
2.2
2.6
3.8
4.2
2.2
3
4.8
4.8
2.6
4.4
3
4.6
9. Know how to clean a bedroom
10. Know how to do laundry
11. Know the risks of alcohol
12. Know the risks of drugs
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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.
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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 transitionaged 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.
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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.
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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.
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Educational Programs
The types of educational services received by Odyssey
youth were:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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
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Supported Employment
Supported Employment services happen where life takes
place - in workplaces, neighborhoods, stores and
schools where everyone else in the community goes.
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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
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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.
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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
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“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.”
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%.
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
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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
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