Healthy tomorrows partnership for children program - mary's center's social change model integrates health care with psychosocial supports, and the project we propose in this application focuses…

Healthy tomorrows partnership for children program - mary's center's social change model integrates health care with psychosocial supports, and the project we propose in this application focuses that integrated approach on our child and adolescent programming, building on our currently funded teen health project to address behavioral health needs among a broader range of ages. Young people who have suffered adverse childhood experiences have less healthy coping mechanisms and are more prone to take chances and/or seek self-medication or participate in behaviors which can lead to unintended pregnancies and stds. The proposed project will build on our existing child and adolescent health services to address the behavioral health needs in our pediatric/teen population by strengthening our workflow for pediatricians' screening of our children and adolescents through improvements in screening capacity. Using evidence-informed screening tools for depression and anxiety that are age appropriate, we aim to identify those children who would benefit from behavioral or social health supports to meet their needs and prevent long term anxiety, depression or more serious behavioral health concerns. Family support workers are included in the programming model to link youth and their families to the appropriate care and correlated social supports and educational needs. This new effort to include behavioral health services in our comprehensive pediatric care program will connect existing healthy tomorrows work to our network of school-based mental health clinics, to our internal early-childhood behavioral health program, as well as to our CO-located behavioral health services. These additions will increase our capacity to offer behavioral health services at our comprehensive clinics in the district of columbia. Every teen who comes to one of our clinics or enters after-school or summer programming meets with a family support worker for an intake process that includes screening for depression using the PHQ-2 and PHQ-9 screening tools, as well as screening for anxiety, tobacco, alcohol and drug use, and intimate partner violence. Anyone found to be in need of individual or family support will be referred to a variety of evidence-based and evidence-informed programs offered by mary's center (or to external supports where necessary). When appropriate, the samhsa evidence-based approach, sbirt (screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment) is used, and all of our clinicians and family support workers are trained in this protocol. Project goals and objectives center around identifying and supporting children and teens who are experiencing depression and anxiety. This effort aligns with the purpose and requirement of the healthy tomorrows program and fits into mary's center's larger "social change model" of multi-dimensional, family-oriented care. Goals of the proposed project include: goal 1: increase the number of children and adolescents screened for depression and anxiety goal 2: link children and youth with a positive screening for depression and anxiety to a behavioral health therapist goal 3: link families whose children are managing depression and anxiety to a family support for engagement in educational and other social services needs goal 4: engage youth managing depression and anxiety with internal support programs