Serving children and youth through the CME approach requires an individualized method to care and service planning. Working with special populations of children and youth further requires the ability to adapt plans of care, services and supports to meet the specific needs of these populations.

Transition-age youth have unique characteristics that differ from those of children and adults. This two hour webinar addressed what CMEs need to consider in adapting services and supports when working with this population of youth. It explored how to approach the involvement of youth in order to inform the larger delivery systems, and implications for other systems when working with youth in transition.

Agenda

I. Introduction

Speaker: Dayana Simons, Senior Program Officer, CHCS; Sheila A. Pires, Partner, Human Service Collaborative, Washington, DC; Senior Program Consultant, CHCS Child Health Quality

II. CME Considerations for Serving Youth in Transition

Speaker: Maryann Davis, Research Associate Professor, Center for Learning and Working During the Transition to Adulthood, Center for Mental Health Services Research, Department of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Dr. Davis provided background and an overview of the transition-age youth population, their specific needs, and how they differ from children and adults.

Speaker: Janet S. Walker, Research Associate Professor, Regional Research Institute Portland State University; Isha-Charlie McNeely, Better Futures Coach-Social Work Department, Lent Elementary School-Activity Assistant, Portland State University Public and Community Health Major

Dr. Walker discussed recent research findings on wraparound facilitation with transition -age youth, and discussed the Achieve My Plan (AMP) study and discussed lessons learned. Ms. McNeely, a peer coach, spoke to essential components of practice with transition-age youth including engagement.

Speaker: Bruce Kamradt, Administrator, Wraparound Milwaukee; Brian McBride, Project Coordinator for Milwaukee County & Wraparound Milwaukee’s Transitions Initiative (Project O-YEAH)

Mr. Kamradt and Mr. McBride talked about the Healthy Transitions Initiative (HTI) in Milwaukee from an operational perspective as an evolutionary process, and touched on the needs of the population, barriers and challenges, and components of Wraparound Milwaukee that are being adapted for HTI, relationship building with other systems and ways in which the CME model is well adapted to working with the transition-age population.