There is a growing body of research that details the significant relationship between the commission of violent acts, drug abuse, and mental health morbidity. The City of Jacksonville received a SAMHSA grant with a goal of creating a holistic approach to prevent and reduce the incidence of youth violence and substance abuse through improved mental health promotion for youth and their families. The first year of the grant was a planning phase during which the Jacksonville Coalition for Prevention was established. The goal of the planning phase was to define a community-based, mental health promotion strategy to strengthen protective factors and reduce risk factors for youth and their families. The approach will entail both prevention and access to treatment. The planning phase began with a community wide needs assessment process looking at Jacksonville's current promotion and administration of mental health services for youth. This included identifying programs/services provided and data collected by each, as well as gaps in programs/services. The resulting project will focus on developing an integrated, multi-service approach to meeting the needs of youth and their families by exploring issues of coordination and improvement of the quality and quantity of services to youth exhibiting multiple risk factors. It will include the philosophy of wraparound services in treating youth and supporting their families as explored in the Wraparound Milwaukee project. This presentation will report the process and results of the community-wide needs assessment, as well as planned initiatives for achieving the goal of the grant project.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participants in this session will be able to: 1. Describe the relationship between violent acts, drug abuse, and mental health morbidity; 2. Discuss the methods and findings of a community wide needs assessment of mental health services; 3. Describe a planned community initiative to prevent and reduce the incidence of youth violence and substance abuse through improved mental health promotion for youth and their families.
Keywords: Mental Health Services, Youth
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.