Engaging emerging adults in washington state - in washington state, emerging adults navigate myriad challenges, including growing independence, new relationships, educational and vocational goals,…

Engaging emerging adults in washington state - in washington state, emerging adults navigate myriad challenges, including growing independence, new relationships, educational and vocational goals, physical changes, and exposure to substances. As such, they are at greater risk for developing a behavioral health condition, and systems of care are not designed to meet their needs. Washington state health care authority (HCA's) division of behavioral health and recovery (dbhr) seeks to implement a model of care tailored to support transitions aged youth (TAY) ages 16-25 who have been diagnosed or are at risk of developing a serious emotional disturbance or serious engagement and evidence-based practices, such as individual placement support for youth (IPS-y) to connect TAY with supported employment, housing, and academic opportunities while creating innovative, developmentally focused access points and care pathways to engage youth in behavioral health services. Among the array of clinical approaches, TAY team will implement dialectical behavioral health therapy, trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing, and a wraparound approach to intensive care coordination, as well as peer support services. In addition, kmhs will partner with local community prevention and wellness initiatives (cpwis) to create suicide risk screening and referral pathways as well as provide community outreach, education, and training through a social marketing effort. At the state level, the prenatal-25 lifespan section will work with the recovery supports section, as well as the prevention team, to align funding and policy mechanisms to ensure smooth coordination between children and adult behavioral health systems while leaning into expanding early intervention programming. A youth advisory council, coordinated between state and local community partners, will provide a feedback mechanism whereby TAY and family members can collaborate to create new policy initiatives, identify gaps and challenges, and present potential solutions to be elevated to the children's behavioral health governance structure. Goal 1: increase and enhance interagency coordination to support cross-system collaboration, service capacity, workforce, and expertise related to TAY need through infrastructure, financing, and policy goals 2: increase access to services for TAY in catchment area by creating developmentally focused access points and care pathways; goal 3: create spaces that invite and encourage TAY leadership; goal 4: increase number of TAY who receive recovery support services; goal 5: increase workforce capacity among TAY serving agencies; goal 6: create a social marketing strategy to increase awareness around TAY need and suicide prevention efforts. In year 1, the program will serve 50 TAY; in year 2 will serve 60; 65 in year 3, 75 in year 4, and 75 in year 5 for a total of 325 across the life cycle of the grant. Dbhr's overall goal is to direct statewide system design the supports individuals throughout the life span, and this grant will inform the system development for TAY.