Kentucky Partnership for Families and Children

Often each system within a community (child welfare, juvenile justice, education, mental health, public health) work independently to serve families and youth. The reality is that many families use services from more than one of these systems/agencies and would benefit from these systems working collaboratively to holistically serve their child and family. In a “system of care,” a community works to build a coordinated network of services and supports to meet the needs of children and youth with serious emotional and mental health disabilities and their families. The guiding principles for building a System of Care should include:
 Services that serve the child’s physical, emotional, social, and educational needs.
 Individualized services guided by an individualized service plan.
 Services within the least restrictive, most normal environment that is appropriate.
 Families as full participants in all aspects of planning and delivery of services.
 Integrated services with linkages between systems/agencies to coordinate services in a more holistic manner.
 Case management (service coordination) to ensure services are delivered in a coordinated and therapeutic manner.
 Promotion of early identification and intervention.
 Smooth transitions from the children’s mental health world to the adult service arena.
 Effective advocacy efforts that work to protect the rights of the children and their families.
 Culturally competent services that respect and respond to the families’ unique cultural differences (race, religion, national origin,
sex, physical disability, etc.)

Building off the principle that “Families should be full participants in all aspects of planning and delivery of services,” the terms “family-driven and youth-guided” have emerged at the national and state level. According to the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health (National Federation), family driven means families have a primary decision making role in the care of their own children as well as the policies and procedures governing care for all children in their community. This includes:

• Choosing supports, services, and providers;
• Setting goals;
• Designing and implementing programs;
• Monitoring outcomes;
• Partnering in funding decisions; and
• Determining the effectiveness of all efforts to promote the mental health and well being of children and youth Youth-guided parallels
this definition only instead of parents, it is the youth themselves involved at all these various levels.

At this point and time, most of us (providers, parents, and youth) are comfortable and familiar with having parents and youth participating at their own individual treatment level. Family-driven and youth-guided takes this to the next level; families and youth not only participate as equal partners at their individual family level, but also at the systems level by participating on ALL committees at all the child and family serving agencies within the System of Care.

Are we (Kentucky) there yet? No, but we are moving in that direction.
How do we get there? It will take increased knowledge for providers, systems, parents and youth.

Systems and providers will need to challenge themselves to NOT do “business as usual.” For many agencies this will require that they change their philosophy in how they currently provide services. It will require family-friendly policies that are flexible and creative. It will require agencies to provide funds to support parents and youth in these roles, but it is our belief that there will be cost savings in the long run due to creating an effective, outcome based system that is prioritized by the families and youth using the services.

It is natural for parents to become advocates for their own children; however, to be an effective parent leader in the System of Care, a parent must be able to grow to the next levels of advocacy: becoming an advocate for other parents and their children, and becoming a system-level advocate within their home communities. Teenagers must also learn to advocate for themselves as they progress to system-level advocacy. For parents and teenagers to be ready for this challenge of “family-driven and youth-guided” they must be given support, education, and mentoring opportunities.

Kentucky Partnership for Families and Children, Inc. (KPFC) is in the process of creating a Parent/Youth Leadership Academy that will focus on helping parents, teenagers, and young adults learn how to progress through the various stages of advocacy. The goal of the Leadership Academy is to help parents use their voice to build a competent and capable parent and youth network that can successfully participate on various level committees with System of Care partners. During Spring 2008, KPFC will offer three Leadership Academy opportunities. To learn more about these training opportunities, contact KPFC’s office at 1-800-369-0533 or Carol Cecil at cwcecil@kypartnership.net.