Mental health grant panel has youngsters in mind

Mental health grant panel has youngsters in mind

Mental Health Board, Project Access, Peer Ambassadors

Article on $9 million dollar, six-year Project ACCESS grant to help the Mental Health District target resources to assist at-risk youth.

Julie Wurth

News-Gazette

11 October 2009

No

CHAMPAIGN – Adrienne Spires has been a counselor, educator and parent of two daughters.

It's that last job that landed her on a panel alongside academics and agency directors who will help decide how to spend a $9 million Champaign County mental health grant.

An interim steering committee appointed this week will begin the planning process for the six-year federal grant, and 10 of the 19 members are teens or parents. The money – $1 million the first year – comes from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA.

The idea is to design a new "system of care" for troubled youths from the bottom up, using input from the people most affected: the clients.

"I think I can be a good asset for the program," Spires said. "I am highly concerned about the community. We've been living here for the past 18 years. My kids attend school here. They're part of extracurricular activities. They go to church in the community."

Spires and one of her daughters are also in "Parenting with Love and Limits," a family therapy program aimed at preventing juvenile delinquency. Her daughter made one "poor choice," Spires said, and was referred to the program.

"It'll be interesting to get the view of families who've been experiencing the situation and how it's affecting them," Spires said at the committee's first meeting Tuesday night.

"Project ACCESS," as it's known, is designed to better coordinate services for children or teens with serious emotional or behavioral problems. It will target families involved in the juvenile justice system, or youths at risk of winding up there, with a particular focus on African-Americans.

SAMHSA requires the governing board to have a majority of parents and youths, and that presents challenges.

"Virtually no one in the country is doing this kind of work the way we're doing it, a family-driven program," said Peter Tracy, executive director of the Champaign County Mental Health Board, which is coordinating the project with Illinois Department of Human Services' Division of Mental Health.

Tracy has talked to colleagues in McHenry County, which received a similar grant four years ago, and "they're still struggling with the governance, getting family and youth representation. It is a huge paradigm shift."

Todd Schroll, project director in McHenry County, said the "Family CARE" program has tried to involve youths and parents at many levels – not just on steering committees but in program planning and even services by having them serve as peer mentors and the like. Parents also want ongoing education about mental health issues, he said.

"It's a challenge to get professionals to see families and youth not as clients but as partners," he said.

Sheila Ferguson, director of the Champaign County Mental Health Center, expects "growing pains" but is also excited about the concept.

The Mental Health Center has clients and family members on its board, and routinely gets input from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill about its services, Ferguson said. It takes more time, but the input is "pretty powerful" and allows the staff to create better programs, she said. Using money wisely is even more important at a time of dwindling resources, she said.

Still, the new family-centered system will be an adjustment, she said. Parents and teens aren't usually available during business hours when agencies are open, and they may need child care or transportation for evening meetings, she said. Parent burnout is also a worry, Schroll said.

Another concern: ensuring all voices are heard without making the group too unwieldy. Spires said some committee members expressed reservations Tuesday about parents and teens having authority over how grant money is spent. She emphasized it will be a collaborative effort, with families as just one component.

"People have to realize parents and youth aren't going to have power to write checks," said Spires, who holds a master's degree in educational administration. She's also worked as a counselor and teen-parent group coordinator at the Mental Health Center.

Ferguson said it will take time for the group to build trust.

"This is something new to the community," Spires said. "Everyone has to come to the table with an open mind. It's going to take a lot of hard work and a lot of passion."

Other parents and teens on the committee already have ideas. Hope Malik, 34, would like to see some money channeled directly to needy families or youth workshops. She attends a parent support group through the UI Psychological Services Center, referred there by a counselor after her daughter had academic and behavior problems in school.

Nate Jackson, 17, and Antoine Anderson, 18, are members of Peer Ambassadors, a group created to be the youth voice for the project.

They'd like to see community centers with activities for youths to "keep them off the streets" and let them "get away and chill for a while," Anderson said.