Program areas at Young Minds Advocacy Project
System reform litigation and implementation eee Young Minds Advocacy Project continues to work on cases in California, Washington and Idaho Each of these cases seeks to pro vide access to intensive home and community-based mental health services to Medicaid eligible and low-income youth The claims arose due to the failure of public agencies to provide mandated care under state and federal law. Providing these required services to thousands of children will allow many to stay at home and avoid placement in foster care, juvenile justice or mental health facilities Not only does this improve outcomes for youth and families, it lowers treatment costs The number of children Involved varies from a high of 40,000 in CA, to 9,000 in ID and 6,000 in WA. The cases are captioned Katie TR v Dreyfus (WA), and Jeff D. v. Otter YMAP is also investigating additional state systems to determine whether there is cause and opportunity mitiate systemic reforms enna
Research and Analysis 22 n eee ccc ee nee ne ene enna e ee nnce ae ennnnnnneeeeee cence eeneeeenenenneee: We conducted research and analysis on mental health programs and policy to better understand and explain how services are planned, provided, monitored, evaluated and funded This work allows us to identify systemic challenges and opportunities relating the provision of adequate and appropriate care Issues covered included the 2011 Public Safety Realignment of California's mental health funding, access to mental health services for foster youth, quality contro! systems and methods, special education related mental health services, stakeholder engagement, and agency and program accountability. In 2017 we published a report entitled "California’s Children and Youths’ System of Care An Agenda to Transform Promises Into Practice” The report funded in part by the Zellerbach Family Foundation, detailed challenges and opportunities for meeting the mental health needs of California youth served by the public mental health system
Qutreach and education eee teen eee ee ne enn nee cen nee ne nnnne ceca nnn enna Activities during 2017 included continued development and maintenance of our web site at www youngmindsadvocacy.org, and maintenance of a news and information blog Public trainings and talks were provided to various stakeholder groups and at mental health-related meetings We completed a project to increase access to intensive home and community-based mental health services by building on the Katie A entitlement (see above) Deliverables included a white paper on access to mental health care under Medicaid for juvenile justice involved youth, and trainings for stakeholders on how to access individualized specialty mental health treatment We made substantial progress on our goal to increase access to care by at least 200 young people living in the San Francisco Bay area. We also began work on two outreach and education projects funded by the Mental Health Services Act. These projects involved support for advocacy by and for transition-aged youth with mental health needs, and parents of young people in need of mental health services and supports Olur support includes strategic communications, education on needs programs, law, and policy relating to child welfare, juvenile justice, special education, and mental health. We also provided assitance with law student education for Stanford's Education Law Clinic