The overall purpose of this project is to enhance the response of Vermont's youth focused behavioral health treatment system to adolescents and transitional-aged youth/young adults in need, and in doing so, increase the impact of evidence-based services on this population, and sustain the service system changes beyond the end of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grant funding.
Once evidence-based models are in place and providing enhanced outcomes as intended, the Vermont Department of Health, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Programs, will begin the process of expanding partnerships among existing community-based organizations, including referral sources; substance abuse and mental health treatment agencies; and the recovery community, focused on the needs of youth.
Two pilot sites are responsible for testing the use of two substance abuse disorder and co-occurring disorder treatment models and one assessment tool. As a result of this effort, more youth and young adults will receive treatment for their substance use, and related mental health problems. We project that, in Year 1 alone, there will be a 20 percent increase in the total number of adolescents (12-17) treated by Centerpoint Adolescent Treatment Services and the Washington County Youth Service Bureau.
Goals
The goal of the program is to expand and enhance treatment and recovery systems for adolescents and transitional-aged youth with substance use and co-occurring substance use and mental disorders and their families. The Vermont Youth Treatment Enhancement Program and its partners are working at the treatment and systems levels to:
Treatment level
- Increase referrals to and total number of youth served by the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program's Preferred Provider network
- Increase rates of abstinence
- Increase enrollment in education/training/employment, as well as social connectedness
- Decrease juvenile justice involvement
- Increase access, service use and outcomes for all, with a special focus on populations vulnerable to health disparities
- Decrease the percentage of youth who binge drink
- Decrease the percentage of youth who used marijuana in the past 30 days
- Reduce the percentage of people who need and do not receive treatment for alcohol use
Systems level
- Build a solid foundation for sustaining an effective, integrated adolescent and transitional-aged youth treatment and recovery support services system by making necessary changes to state policies and procedures relating to treatment service delivery
- Create enhanced financing structures to support sustained delivery of evidence-based practices
- Create a statewide workforce development/training plan for widened use of evidence-based practices
- Strengthen and expand statewide supports necessary to promote effective community-based substance abuse prevention and treatment services across Vermont
- Create at the state-systems level, a partnership to guide, support and sustain statewide systems change efforts
