State Level Transition Staff

Armed with the knowledge gained from the OMHSAS Transition Pilot projects, and realizing the unique needs of the this population, Deputy Secretary Joan Erney created a position assigned solely to focus on issues relevant to transition age youth and young adults. Of particular concern was creating system capacity to meet the needs of this group in their home and community settings, thus preventing admission to inpatient facilities, residential treatment facilities and possible admission to the state hospital system.

Position responsibilities include providing leadership in planning and development of innovative service models for behavioral health treatment and supports for the transition age population; the evaluation of program implementation for this population at the county level, and analyzing performance and outcome data for transition age youth and young adult cross system initiatives.

Youth Advisory Subcommittee

Another initiative aimed at involving youth that OMHSAS has undertaken has been the development of the Youth Advisory Subcommittee, which serves as an avenue for youth to provide feedback to the deputy secretary on issues affecting this population. Since transition spans both the Adult and Children’s Service delivery systems, youth are appointed as voting members by the Deputy Secretary and participate on both the Adult and Children’s Committees bringing their unique voice and perspective to the all projects that OMHSAS is involved with. The development of initiative is in line with the Transition to Independence Model (TIP) of programs and services being youth guided.

Transition Age Housing Workgroup

Recognizing that stable, affordable housing is a critical issue for youth and young adults in transition, OMHSAS has also developed a Youth Housing Workgroup. The group consisted of transition age youth and young adults, family members, providers and other stakeholders, that met and developed recommendations around the specific needs of youth and young adults related to housing. Those recommendations will be forwarded to the larger Advisory Committee for review and comment and then inclusion in the OMHSAS “Plan for Housing and Recovery Oriented Services.”

Adult County Mental Health Plan Reviews

On a yearly basis, counties submit to OMHSAS an adult county mental health plan that outlines how each county will plan for and implement the provisions of public mental health services to the residents of that county, including special needs populations such as older adults, consumers with co-occurring issues and transition age youth. Included in the state level review of these plans have been several members of the Youth Advisory Subcommittee to ensure that that the needs of transition age youth and young adults are represented in the adult county mental health plans.

Education Plus Project (Supported Education)

To help in addressing the barriers of education and employment for transition age youth and young adults, OMHSAS is embarking on the Education Plus Project Pilots. OMHSAS recently issued a Request for Applications for up to four counties to partner with OMHSAS in the development of Education Plus Projects, modeled after the successful program in Philadelphia through Horizon House. Horizon House’s Education Plus program began in January 2002 with funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health.

The aim of the project is to offer individualized supports such as study skills, peer, campus, and life supports to young adults with mental health issues who are attending participating area colleges and certificate programs. Upon graduating from college, in addition to throughout the course of obtaining an education, employment supports are available to program participants. Education Plus meets the needs of many students with a diagnosis of mental illness who believe that attaining a post-secondary education is a distant dream. The program’s philosophy is to offer individualized services within a college environment and was created to help program participants reach their educational goals; an integral step to obtaining skilled jobs and a higher quality of life within their communities.

At the present time, OMHSAS is eagerly awaiting the responses from counties to the Request for Applications to partner together on this new and exciting opportunity to improve educational outcomes for transition age youth and young adults.

Integrated Children’s Service Planning (ICSP)

Pennsylvania’s focus on transition age youth is embedded within the Integrated Children’s Service’s Plan (ICSP). The basis of these integrated plans are to break down the “silos” that have traditionally existed and served to separate various child and youth serving systems.

Every year each county in Pennsylvania submits a children’s services plan that describes how that county will integrate their children’s services. One of the goals of the integrated plan is to take planning efforts in service programs that historically may not have planned together and ensure coordination, consolidation and ultimately the integration of program administration and resource allocation for services to children and families.

As we have seen through the TIP model, the provision of services through an integrated and coordinated approach is critical to the successful transition of youth and young adults. To begin the process of planning ahead on a systems level for transition age youth, Pennsylvania has recognized the importance of including the needs of this population in the Integrated Children’s Service Planning process.

Pennsylvania’s ICSP process requires specific guidelines, one of which includes a “Promising Practices Incentive Grant.” These grant funds are made available for support and development of a promising practice activity at the county level that includes one or more of the following: (1) Integrated Case Management, (2) Integrated Data Management Systems, Centralized Intake Processes, and Integrated Prevention Planning. Several counties have identified transition as a priority in their Integrated Children’s Service Planning process.

Youth and Family Training Institute

OMHSAS recently contracted with the University of Pittsburgh to create the Youth and Family Training Institute. In addition to being grounded in High Fidelity Wraparound model, the Institute includes many of the Transition to Independence guidelines and principles that have resulted in successful program outcomes for transition age youth and young adults.

Employment Transformation Project (Supported Employment)

To move Pennsylvania’s recovery transformation forward, “a person’s recovery journey must include acquiring or returning to social roles in the community – including that of being a worker.” Pennsylvania’s unemployment statistics for 2006 averaged 4.6% while unemployment for people with a mental illness in Pennsylvania’s behavioral health system is estimated at 85%. The public behavioral health system of care and benefits has institutionalized people’s poverty status and lack of information on the impact of shifting from the system of benefits to an income based on employment contribute to people’s hesitancy to return to the workforce.

Studies have clearly demonstrated the many positive personal and economic effects of working including:

• Improvement in employment status results in higher levels of self-esteem, morale, self-efficacy, and overall life satisfaction .
• Working consumers contribute to their counties’ tax base. In a California study, for each consumer who became employed, $239 was paid each month in federal, state, local and sales taxes.
• Helping consumers to work reduced the number of people on the SSI/SSDI rolls and saves taxpayer money. In the same study noted above, an average of $200 per month was saved in general assistance, TANF and SSI payments. In addition, an average of $187 was saved in public behavioral health services costs.
• Employment for consumers can reduce the use of costly behavioral health services.

Goals of the Employment Transformation Project

Additional Resources on Transition

• PA Community on Transition Shared Work Site (you’ll need to register to enter the site)
• National Community of Practice in Support of Transition
• Transitions for Youth
• www.HearingLossNation.org: This site for young adults is designed specifically as an online social networking community for individuals ages 18 and 35 who are hard of hearing.
• www.whatadifference.samhsa.gov: This new site supports the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Mental Health Campaign for Mental Health Recovery to encourage, educate, and inspire people between 18 and 25 to support their friends who are experiencing mental health problems. SAMHSA recently reported that “there are an estimated 9.8 million adults aged 18 or older living with serious mental illness. Among adults, the prevalence of serious mental illness is highest in the 18 to 25 age group, yet this age group is also the least likely to receive services or counseling for mental health issues.” SAMHSA is also collaborating with the Advertising Council on a series of public service announcements to encourage young adults to support friends and family with mental health issues.
• National Campaign Raises Awareness About Mental Health Problems in Multicultural Communities
  SAMHSA, in collaboration with the Ad Council, has launched a national public service advertising (PSA) campaign to promote recovery from mental health problems within multicultural communities by educating and inspiring young adults to talk openly about issues of mental health. The culturally targeted PSAs seek to motivate societal change toward social acceptance and decrease negative attitudes that may surround mental illness. These PSAs are part of a larger multicultural public service effort designed to reach the Hispanic/Latino, American Indian, Chinese American and African American communities.  Links to information about PSAs:
  Hispanic/Latino
  American Indian
  Chinese American
  African American