Out at home family support program - out of home youth &family support project offers highly specialized services to the lgbtqia+ community

The mission is to expand access to high quality and low barrier treatment. Staff are passionate advocates for the lgbtqia+ community and offer a comprehensive wraparound approach to meet the complex and diverse needs of lgbtqia+ folks by offering services including psychotherapy services, medication management, substance use treatment, case management, mentoring, and intimate partner violence counseling services. Out at home training and support emphasizes the need for acceptance-based processes and building of community to allow people in the lgbtqia+ community to thrive and celebrate their individuality. Since the inception in 2018, the need for lgbtqia+ specialized clinicians has only grown due to anti-lgbtqia+ legislation and lack of support and education for families, communities, and schools. Our mission is to serve lgbtqia+ folks of any age, and their families, by providing high quality individual, couples, family, and group therapy as well as parent coaching and external training and support. Values of out at home include providing affirming, collaborative, skilled, evidenced-based, and high-quality clinical care, offering low barrier approaches to support clients in accessing gender affirming care, and providing training and consultation to families and our communities within massachusetts. Clinicians at out at home have both training and lived experience in working with lgbtqia+ populations. 45% of clients at out at home are under 18 years of age, and 72% of clients are under 21. Additionally, 55% of out at home clients are trans, non-binary, or gender fluid. Out at home uses evidenced-based strategies to provide high-quality clinical care including trauma-focused CBT, motivational interviewing, and intensive treatment for complex trauma. Out at home's trainings and psychoeducation are informed by the trevor project and the massachusetts commission on GAY, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning youth. During the project, out at home will expand group programming and integrate therapeutic mentoring, substance use treatment, case management, and intimate partner violence specialist services. By december of 2023, all current staff will be trained on the family acceptance project. We will evaluate increases to youth's self-report of sense of parental acceptance, as well as parental self-reports of being accepting of their child's lgbtqia+ identity. We will also evaluate change in behavioral health and trauma symptom outcomes. Currently, we serve 71 youth, adults, families, and couples, an increase of 50% from 2021. Intern capacity has tripled for the 2023-2024 academic year. Out at home has also doubled its staff in the 2023 fiscal year and anticipates being able to serve over 150 lgbtqia+ clients by the end of the FY23. Over the course of the project, we anticipate serving 310 additional clients throughout massachusetts. Out at home will also increase its capacity for external training by 100% in the next three years. Additionally, this funding will allow out at home to enhanced recruitment and community outreach efforts through increased staffing to cover a larger catchment area and more diversified services and service delivery to support the program in meeting a broader spectrum of client presentation and needs. Out at home is also especially aware of the racial disparities experienced by bipoc folks in accessing effective mental health treatment. Out at home added language capacities of mandarin and spanish to our clinical services in 2023 and focused on hiring bipoc clinicians to match the needs of our population. Currently, 30% of clients served at out at home are bipoc and through increased physical office locations, the delivery of in-home and community-based services and increased outreach attempts, our goal is to increase enrollment of bipoc lgbtqia+ identified clients by the end of 2024.