Community Based
Treatment Alternatives for Children
MARYLAND
Grant Information
Name of Grantee
Mental
Hygiene Administration, Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
Title of Grant
Maryland's Community Based Treatment Alternatives for Children
Type of Grant
Community
Based Treatment Alternatives for Children
Amount of Grant
$100,000
Year Original Funding
Received
2003
Contact Information
Albert Zachik, M.D.
Director of Child and Adolescent Services
55 Wade Avenue
Mitchell Building
Catonsville, MD 21228
410-402-8487
azachik@dhmh.state.md.us
Subcontractor(s)
University of Maryland School
of Medicine, Center for Mental Health Services Research
Target Population(s)
Youth who meet the level-of-care requirements for
admission to a psychiatric residential treatment facility (PRTF).
Goals
- Conduct a feasibility
study for a demonstration of home and community services that provide a
level of care comparable to PRTFs.
- Develop an
implementation and evaluation plan for the demonstration.
Activities
- Define strategies,
standards, and system conditions to support high-quality provision of
care, planning, and implementation via the wraparound approach.
- Identify issues
related to marketing the effectiveness of community services.
- Determine factors and
legal requirements related to site selection.
- Outline the site
selection process and conduct formal site selection activities.
- Develop specifications
for the wraparound model, including enrollment and eligibility procedures,
a training plan, and a demonstration model.
- Design a quality
assurance process and a formal feedback mechanism for formative review.
- Develop a full
evaluation plan.
Abstract
The Mental Hygiene Administration, a unit of the
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, will conduct the study to fulfill a
major recommendation of the Governor's Council on Custody Relinquishment. The
Council was created to study alternatives to the forced or voluntary
relinquishment of parental custody to gain access to health services. This
problem has subsequently been identified in a General Accounting Office (GAO)
report and acknowledged as a problem of major scope by the President's New
Freedom Commission on Mental Health.
Maryland has played a major role in articulating the need for a
program like Community Based Treatment Alternatives for Children (C-TAC) which
will allow demonstrations of home and community services that provide a level
of care comparable to a PRTF. The principal goals of the project include (1)
completing a feasibility study, (2) developing an implementation plan for the
demonstration, and (3) developing an evaluation plan.
A major focus of this project is on family
involvement in all aspects of the planning, research, and evaluation
development. The demonstration model will be based on the experience of
"Wraparound Milwaukee" and other similar demonstration projects, and
two Center for Mental Health Services Children's
Imitative grants that have been implemented in Maryland.