Tagged With "Mental Health"
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What You See Depends on Where You Sit
Benchmarks is very grateful for the opportunity to host child welfare stakeholder focus groups as part of a new project with Vaya Health. Vaya is committed to providing quality services to our most vulnerable population- children that have experienced trauma, child abuse and neglect. As a part of the child welfare project, the data collection process will include the typical number crunching, quantitative data analysis, but we know that does not always capture the entire story. In order to...
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Spotlight: Surry County SAP Taking Its First Solo Flight
Today, Benchmarks is spotlighting our first Standardized Assessment Project participants, Surry County Department of Social Services (DSS) and Partners Health Management (Partners). In January 2022, Surry County DSS and Partners will embark on sustaining the Standardized Assessment Protocol (SAP) process on their own. Benchmarks implementation staff will step out of the picture and the partnership will take over local management of all project aspects. For the first 18 months of the project,...
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Why Universally Screen for Trauma?
In a world where “trauma,” “trauma-informed,” and “trauma-focused” terms are not only becoming increasingly used, but also better understood, sometimes one needs to take a step back and take stock of why we are doing the work that we are doing. Reflecting and remembering why the identification of trauma and being trauma-informed and-focused in our work and lives is important. There is a myriad of things that we can re-visit and evaluate for both their usefulness and effectiveness in trauma...
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Partnering to Care for Families: Highlighting the Work of Integrated Family Services
Benchmarks’ Center for Quality Integration (CQi) would like to say Happy Anniversary to our partners at Integrated Family Services! A year ago, the agency made the decision to join the Benchmarks’ Partnering for Excellence (PFE) initiative between Trillium Health Resources and two of their partnering child welfare organizations in Pitt and Craven counties. Since joining, Integrated Family Services (IFS) has been more than just a stellar partner. Their commitment to collaborating with...
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Opportunities for Healing: Exploring Strategies to Improve Racial Disproportionalities & Disparities in Child Welfare
Research shows that due to substantial histories of abuse, neglect, and increased exposure to trauma, youth in foster care have exceptional concerns regarding their mental health needs. “Rates of psychiatric symptoms and disorders, such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, and reactive attachment disorder, are much higher in children in foster care” (Lohr & Jones, 2016). When we couple this knowledge with data on racial disproportionality and...
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Getting Good Ideas to Work in Project Management
Benchmarks’ Center for Quality Integration (CQI) staff members are always learning new skills and honing current ones as they go about their daily project work. Over the years, staff have been enhancing their knowledge in child and adolescent brain development and further developing competencies in trauma-informed and resilience-focused work. These specific knowledge and skill sets are consistently applied across our project work within our child welfare and mental health systems. Though CQI...
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Saying Farewell: Rockingham County Continues SAP Independently
Rockingham County Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Social Services (RCDHHS-DSS) began their journey with the Standardized Assessment Protocol (SAP) in 2019. During this time, the DSS staff have worked to increase their knowledge of trauma-informed practices to best meet the needs of children entering permanency planning. The SAP process includes timely screening for trauma in order to quickly identify a child’s need for further assessment, so that they are more likely to...
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A Trauma-Informed Approach to Court
As a result of a 2015 federal review of child welfare practices in North Carolina, the North Carolina Administrative Offices of Court and other judicial partners engaged local court and local social services offices to address issues of children receiving permanency. District Permanency Collaboratives were established as a result of the federal a review of child welfare practices. The collaboratives in each North Carolina judicial district were charged to hold quarterly meetings to include...
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Takeaways from the 2022 Kids: Empowered Communities Driving Change Conference
Benchmarks’ staff attended the virtual policy summit hosted by NC Child and the NC Essentials for Childhood Initiative on March 29 th and 30 th . The two-day conference was packed with inspirational messages from child advocates across North Carolina. After a formal opening from NC Child Executive Director, Michelle Hughes, and a moving keynote address with a call to action by Reverend Dr. Starsky Wilson of the Children’s Defense Fund, organizers from across the state came together to host...
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Sandhills Center Dives into TiCCA Work in the Midst of Change Whirlwinds
Change is difficult anytime an organization must undergo it, but it is doubly hard when that organization is navigating multiple systemic changes. Add in growing the organization’s number of consumers and partner agencies to the mix, and things can feel downright impossible. In the past year, North Carolina’s Local Management Entities-Managed Care Organizations (LME-MCOs) have weathered re-alignments, with some North Carolina counties choosing to shift to another LME-MCO catchment area.
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Pamlico Child & Family Therapy - Partner Spotlight
Benchmarks’ Partnering for Excellence (PFE) project works to align local private providers, LME/MCO partners, and local Departments of Social Services, as well as the community to better address the trauma-related needs of children and families encountering the child welfare system. Research shows that addressing trauma early on is imperative to bettering the outcomes of those who have experienced it. With so many children and families having trauma exposure, we recognized a need to...
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Healthy Opportunities Pilot Launches in North Carolina
The Healthy Opportunities Pilot is one of many innovative approaches the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) has taken in the last few years in its commitment to developing a system suited to improve the health and wellbeing of North Carolinians. Research shows that while quality medical care is critical, up to 80% of a person’s health is determined by social and environmental factors. The Healthy Opportunities pilot aims to implement a series of well researched,...
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The Impact of Trauma on Physical Health
Trauma has a significant impact on many aspects of a child’s life. Trauma exposure has an effect on overall health and well-being, contributing to complications and concerns with emotional and physical health throughout the life span. Over the past twenty years, there has been more research and acknowledgement of the overall impact that trauma has from childhood through adulthood. At Benchmarks, we strive to develop and implement innovative programs and processes that mitigate the effects of...
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A Vision for Pathways to Permanency
Last summer Benchmarks began facilitating a project to address the overwhelming challenges facing the child welfare serving system in North Carolina. When Vaya Health, a Medicaid managed care organization in North Carolina, approached Benchmarks about managing the project they recognized negative impacts on youth in foster care from the longstanding misalignment between the child welfare and the behavioral healthcare system. We began by hearing from stakeholders about how to best meet the...
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Why Use a Standardized Battery of Measures in Mental Health Assessments?
The question posed in the title is one that Benchmarks’ project managers and coordinators hear often during our implementation work within our state’s social services and mental health agencies. As busy as our mental health clinicians are, why would we want them to spend more time completing a battery of measures for children and families that need to get into services as quickly as possible? Isn’t it better to get their basic comprehensive clinical assessment completed quickly and start...
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Nature RX – How Nature-Based Interventions Can Support Healing & Well-Being in the Face of Trauma
Benchmarks’ Partnering for Excellence (PFE) joins forces with County Department of Social Services offices, LME/MCOs, and private providers to address the trauma related needs of children involved in the child welfare system. Knowing that children involved in child welfare are more likely to experience trauma than their non-involved peers, the partnerships work to screen these children for trauma and connect them to an assessment to address their needs. In response, Benchmarks designed the...
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The Impact of Trauma on Physical Health Part II
A few weeks ago, we looked at how trauma can impact one’s physical health in the “Impact of Trauma on Physical Health” blog. Today, we will look further into the work that Benchmarks is doing to support multidisciplinary collaboration in order to improve the physical health outcomes for children across the state. Benchmarks develops and implements specific pilot projects across various catchment areas in North Carolina. These pilot projects are designed to encourage multidisciplinary...
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June is PTSD Awareness Month
While many of us involved in this work are aware of the importance of understanding the impact that diagnoses like posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—a mental health condition which results in coping difficulties following traumatic experiences—and other trauma related disorders can have on people’s lives, the reality is that many still lack necessary awareness. As we, in our roles as professionals, allies, advocates, and educators celebrate PTSD awareness month and work to engage those...
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The Disconnect
What if every decision we made was based solely on what we knew? How might that change our personal behaviors that impact our health? For example, if I took everything out of the equation other than what nutrients my body required, I would only select quality foods 100% percent of the time. This means I would never waiver on my decision to eat healthy, even when offered my favorite treat. When faced with the decision to grab a quick bite from fast food restaurant than to prepare a meal at...
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Spotlight: SPARC Services & Programs
SPARC Programs & Services provides children and family mental health services in a variety of locations across North Carolina, from the Piedmont to the Western areas of the state. SPARC has become the most recent private provider to have clinicians trained to administer the Benchmarks’ Standardized Assessment Protocol (SAP) Trauma-Intensive Comprehensive Clinical Assessment (TiCCA) to children over the age of 4 entering foster care. SPARC was selected by the Burke and Rutherford SAP...
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Engaging Persons with Lived Experience in System Improvement Projects
We are gaining momentum in our Pathways to Permanency Project, a Vaya Health initiative to align the work of the child welfare and behavioral health systems. Workgroup sessions are taking place monthly, stakeholders’ meetings are occurring quarterly and in between we are busy ensuring the work moves ahead so that sustainable change is possible. However, as we have navigated this project it has been overwhelmingly clear that we needed and wanted to include individuals with lived experience in...
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Changing Policies: A Trauma-Informed Approach
Pathways to Permanency Project, a Vaya Health initiative created to align the work of the child welfare and behavioral health systems, continues to develop solutions to improve outcomes for child welfare involved youth and families. Child welfare stakeholders utilize monthly workgroup sessions to explore the impact and feasibility required of each potential solution to identified problems. As the project managers, Benchmarks’ staff often hear that a potential solution is to create new...
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Words Matter: Screening vs. Assessment
Frequently in the world of mental health, we find ourselves using many terms that can become confusing, even for those that work within our systems. As Benchmarks continues to expand projects across North Carolina, we find that the terms “screening” and “assessment” have become a regular part of this confusion. The interchangeable use of these terms has contributed to mix-ups surrounding the terms’ actual meanings, leading professionals to inadvertently refer children and families to...
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TiCCA Train the Trainer Training
Two major components of implementation work are ensuring fidelity and sustainability. Benchmarks’ Standardized Assessment Protocol (SAP) focuses on fidelity when implementing the use of Trauma-Intensive Comprehensive Clinical Assessments (TiCCAs) through a rigorous training and certification process as well as ongoing continuous quality improvement processes. The project also focuses on the sustainability of TiCCA completion in local communities after Benchmarks is no longer providing...
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Restoring the Nervous System by Healing the Mind-Body Connection
One of the aims of Benchmarks’ Partnering for Excellence (PFE) is to educate communities about the effects of trauma and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs); specifically, how these effects impact the youth and families that encounter the child welfare system. Through our work we know that when systems are trauma-informed, it can help shift the perspectives of professionals from “What is wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?”, which ultimately informs the way we treat and address...
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Suicide Prevention 2022: Creating Hope Through Action
September is Suicide Prevention month, and the theme for this year’s World Suicide Prevention campaign is “Creating Hope Through Action.” Perfectly situated only a couple of months after the United States launched the new National Suicide Prevention and Crisis Line. The new line, 988, was designed to be an easy to remember way for people to access help in times of need. While a new crisis line increases the availability of needed mental health assistance, the stigma surrounding mental health...
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Celebrating Kinship Caregivers
As we turn over the calendar to the new month of September, we want to take a moment to recognize National Kinship Care month. This is a time to celebrate the support of families and other adults with family-like relationships, who have stepped into the role of a caretaker when biological parents cannot do so safely. This scenario is more common than you might imagine, impacting 4% of all children across the United States, totaling more than 2.6 million children. When a grandparent, aunt,...
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Children’s Center of Northwest North Carolina: SAP Provider Spotlight
The Benchmarks’ Standardized Assessment Project (SAP) and Surry County’s SAP Leadership Team welcome The Children’s Center of Northwest North Carolina as our newest Trauma-Intensive Comprehensive Clinical Assessment (TiCCA) provider! The Children’s Center of Northwest North Carolina (Children’s Center) provides a wide array of programs and services for children and families in the Northwestern region of North Carolina. Community Relations Coordinator, Valerie Smith, states “The Children’s...
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Incorporating Mental Wellness Activities into Daily Practice
During the month of October, we acknowledge Mental Illness Awareness Week (2nd-8th) and World Mental Health Day (10th). In North Carolina alone there are over 1 million adults living with a mental health condition and over 100,000 youth ages 12-17 who have been diagnosed with depression (NAMI 2021). It is always the right time to focus on your mental health as a part of your overall wellness. Here are three ways to incorporate mental wellness activities into your everyday. Breathwork There...
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Standardized Assessment Protocol Pilot Is Expanding to In Home Family Services
Benchmarks recently completed implementation of the Standardized Assessment Protocol (SAP) in Burke, Rutherford, and Surry Counties, with a target population of children and youth involved in foster care. The process implemented was specifically for children and youth ages four and older, with the goal of assisting the child and family’s access to a quality, evidence-informed trauma assessment. We refer to this assessment as the Benchmarks Trauma Intensive Comprehensive Clinical Assessment...
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WellCare of North Carolina is Increasing Access to Trauma-Informed Services
This month, for our partner spotlight, Benchmarks’ Center for Quality Integration (CQi) is highlighting our partners at WellCare of North Carolina, one of the five Managed Care Organizations selected to provide statewide healthcare coverage to NC Medicaid recipients through Standard Plans. Standard Plans offer physical and mental/behavioral health coverage to individuals experiencing mild to moderate behavioral health concerns. WellCare works to provide its beneficiaries with access to...
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Implementing Trauma Training at Cabarrus County DSS
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) was created by Congress in 2000 as part of the Children’s Health Act to “raise the standard of care and increase access to services for children and families who experience or witness traumatic events.” This unique network of frontline providers, family members, researchers, and national partners is committed to changing the course of children’s lives by improving their care and moving scientific gains quickly into practice across the U.S.
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Benchmarks Offers Community Resiliency Model Trainings for Agencies and Communities
Benchmarks’ Center for Quality Integration will add Community Resiliency Model (CRM) Trainings to its’ regular training offerings in 2023. Our team is thrilled to have completed the training by the Trauma Resource Institute© in this trauma-informed, resiliency-focused wellness model. CRM is an affordable, adaptable, and portable model that can be taught to anyone as young as the age of three. The only requirement needed to learn these biologically based skills is that a person has a nervous...
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The Standardized Assessment Protocol Welcomes Cabarrus County to the Fold
Benchmarks is excited to welcome Cabarrus County DSS as the newest member of our Standardized Assessment Protocol (SAP) project! The SAP project is a process created to ensure prompt trauma screening for children over the age of four entering foster care to quickly identify a child’s need for further assessment, which increases their likelihood to receive the treatment necessary to reach their full potential. This treatment goes beyond just mental and behavioral health; treatment...
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Benchmarks Offers "Trauma & Resilience" Training
Beginning January 2023, Benchmarks’ Center for Quality Integration will add “Trauma & Resilience” to our catalog of offered trainings. “Trauma & Resilience” uses the National Childhood Traumatic Stress Networks’ (NCTSN’s) Child Welfare Trauma Training Toolkit as its base curricula with influences from our teams’ own “on the ground” knowledge, research, and experiences. Across North Carolina, Benchmarks has been assisting communities in efforts to become more trauma-informed over the...
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Engaging Birth Parents in Child Welfare and Behavioral Health Systems Improvement Projects
The Pathways to Permanency project, a VAYA Health initiative to align the work of the child welfare and behavioral health systems, is continuing to make progress by engaging participants from each of the six workgroups to create sustainable change. Each workgroup has identified multiple solutions for which they are currently developing implementation plans. It has been salient to the workgroup participants that individuals with lived experience are engaged in this work and have space to...
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Partners Health Management Continues to Partner for Innovative Pilot Project
This week we are giving a shout out to Partners Health Management! They are a valuable teammate in making the Standardized Assessment Protocol (SAP) project successful, and Benchmarks is proud to be partnering with this organization. Partners serves as a Managed Care Organization (MCO) for clients with mental health concerns, intellectual and developmental disabilities, as well as substance use disorders, managing services for the behavioral health care needs of these populations. Partners...
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January is Mental Wellness Month
In efforts to promote the importance of maintaining good mental health, the month of January has been designated as “Mental Wellness Month”. With nearly one in five U.S. adults living with mental illness ( NIMH, 2022 ), it is important that we all take the time to check in on our mental health. Those who have suffered from trauma are often at higher risk of experiencing mental illness. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study correlated that those with four or more ACEs were more...
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Rockingham County DHHS-DSS Spotlight
Rockingham County Department of Health & Human Services-Division of Social Services is adept at participating in pilot projects in the health and human services realm, and is always interested in doing innovative, trauma-informed work that is for the benefit of the children & families they serve. In 2019, Rockingham County chose to participate in Benchmarks’ Standardized Assessment Protocol (SAP) project and sought to provide foster children with the opportunity to receive a holistic...
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The Benefits of Peer Sharing Across Projects
As mental health agencies make decisions regarding whether they want to participate in pilot projects, it is beneficial for them to gather valuable information including feedback from agencies who already participate in the projects. Trauma-intensive Comprehensive Clinical Assessment (TiCCA) clinicians Dale Smith of the Children’s Center of Northwest NC and Mollie Hedgecock of Rockingham County Youth Services participated in an information session with behavioral healthcare providers who are...
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Trauma-Informed Consultation within Agencies
Benchmarks has implemented 2 projects across the state over the past 12 years, Partnering for Excellence (PFE) and the Standardized Assessment Protocol (SAP). Both projects are implemented within County DSS offices with a goal of ensuring children and families in child welfare have access to trauma screening and subsequent Trauma-intensive Comprehensive Clinical Assessments (TiCCAs). Having access to TiCCAs provides an opportunity for the child and family to receive holistic recommendations...
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Creating a Common Language & Shared Understanding
The “Common Language & Shared Understanding” workgroup is one of the 6 workgroups that meet monthly as part of the Pathways to Permanency project. Participants who join the monthly sessions are from across the Vaya Health catchment area and work in child welfare, Medicaid managed care, behavioral health, and child placement. This cross-system group of professionals is tasked with developing solutions to challenges identified during the beginning of the project. The focus of this...
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Vaya's Pathways to Permanency Project: Utilizing (b)(3) Respite to Support School Suspension
Since 2021 Benchmarks has been consulting with Vaya Health on a project called Pathways to Permanency . This project aims to coordinate efforts between Vaya, County DSS offices, and mental health providers to ensure youth in foster care have access to high quality behavioral health services. To better understand the needs of children, families, and professionals within Vaya’s catchment, landscape analyses and several focus groups were conducted. Main themes from initial discoveries were then...
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Partnering with a Purpose: Creating behavioral health services for youth in foster care
The “Accessible, Quality Continuum of Behavioral Health Services” workgroup is one of the six workgroups convening monthly in the Vaya Health Pathways to Permanency project. Participants who join the monthly sessions are from across the Vaya Health catchment area and work in child welfare, Medicaid managed care, behavioral health, and child placement. This cross-system group of professionals is tasked with developing solutions to challenges identified during the beginning of the project. In...
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Solid Foundations Spotlight
Benchmarks’ Standardized Assessment Protocol project (SAP) would like to welcome Solid Foundations as the newest Trauma-intensive Comprehensive Clinical Assessment (TiCCA) provider! Bobby Fisher, owner of Solid Foundations stated, “Solid Foundations Counseling Center is always striving to improve our services and the care provided to our clients. Participating in the Benchmarks’ SAP allows us to expand on our Evidence Based Practices and to provide the best care to our clients and our...
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Successful Program Planning: How to Create Focus-Driven Solutions
One of the hardest things to do in project management is to define goals and objectives for your project. While it seems like a relatively simple task, clarifying goals and objectives that directly tie to the identified problems can be particularly difficult in the beginning stages of a project. This can especially be the case in health and human service-related fields where the aims of projects are often to solve complex issues that are compounded by systemic and political barriers. Due to...
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National Stress Awareness Month: Handling Stress as Helping Professionals
Stress and poor mental health are two of the biggest public health challenges that we are faced with today. Unfortunately, many people are unaware of how deeply these problems affect us. April is National Stress Awareness Month! To bring attention to this issue, we will discuss the negative impacts of stress, as well as ways to manage it. This is very important for human services professionals who work with Benchmarks’ implementation projects. The effects of stress on human services...
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Pathways to Permanency Project: Quality Clinical Assessment to Drive Services Workgroup
Monthly, cross system stakeholders are meeting to discuss best practices and develop tools to ensure that youth in foster care receive timely and quality clinical assessments that are tailored to their unique needs. The Pathways to Permanency Project is a collaborative effort sponsored by Vaya Health, an LME-MCO in North Carolina, that seeks to improve the outcomes for youth in foster care. The project's “Quality Clinical Assessment to Drive Services Workgroup” is a crucial part of this...
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May is National Foster Care Month: Supporting Children and Families
National Foster Care Month is an important initiative led by the Children's Bureau, a national organization that partners with federal, state, tribal, and local agencies to improve the overall health and well-being of children and families across the country. During this month, the bureau takes the time to acknowledge and celebrate the contributions of foster parents, family members, volunteers, mentors, policymakers, and child welfare professionals who work tirelessly to help children and...
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Local County Highlights Vital Link between Mental Health & Foster Care
Vaya Health's "Pathways to Permanency" Project Featured in Ashe County Newspaper
This week, Ashe County, NC recognized the efforts of Vaya Health in their local newspaper. Vaya Health, which operates across 31 counties including Ashe, has been involved in the "Pathways to Permanency" project for nearly 2 years. The goal of the project is to guarantee that optimal behavioral health services are available to youth in foster care. "Pathways to Permanency" is just one of the many consulting...