Helping Youth at Risk & Building Resilience

Youth Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) is an innovative program designed to address the significant needs of children/youth in Westchester county aged 10 to 21, who are at risk of entering or returning home from high-intensity services, such as inpatient settings or residential services. Youth ACT ensures the child/youth and their family have the level of support services and access to clinical professionals required to sustain any gains made in crisis response or other out-of-home high-intensity services. The Youth ACT team delivers intensive, highly coordinated, individualized services and skilled therapeutic interventions through an integrated, multi-disciplinary team approach to better achieve success and maintain the child/youth in the home, school, and community.

All referrals go through Children’s Single Point of Access (C-SPOA).

For more information about Youth ACT and to get in touch with our team, please visit our new website at https://greatermentalhealth/youth-act/

ACHIEVE – System of Care High Fidelity Wraparound is a care management program for Severely Emotionally Disturbed (SED) children aged five to twenty-one years of age.  Families in this program participate in an evidence-based model of care coordination called High Fidelity Wraparound.  Care Managers receive specialized training and supervision by the New York State Office of Mental Health Staff. This program is part of New York State’s System of Care SAMHSA Grant.  ACHIEVE – System of Care High Fidelity Wraparound is part of Health Homes Serving Children and provides services to children with Medicaid who score a high acuity on the CANS assessment.

Services are individualized, community-based care coordination to children and their families to improve the family’s ability to keep the child at home and out of residential care. Services focus on reducing emergency room visits and inpatient hospitalizations.  Specially trained Care Managers experienced in working with children who have serious emotional/behavioral issues meet regularly with children and families in their homes. Staff collaborates with parents and community service providers using a strength-based model that identifies a care team for each family, and advocates for needed and appropriate services to promote the successful care of children within their homes and communities.  Care Managers provide 24-hour telephonic crisis intervention services and arrange for therapeutic, educational, recreational, respite and family support services.

Children and Family Treatment and Support Services (CFTSS) are available to any youth, from zero to 21 years of age, who has Medicaid and meets medical necessity. Services are provided in the home or community, and referrals can come from any source, including family, schools, pediatricians, and clinicians.

Services include:

• Other Licensed Practitioner (OLP): This service, delivered by a licensed behavioral health practitioner, provides an initial assessment, during which the youth's strengths and areas of need are explored, a diagnosis provided and a treatment plan developed. If it is determined that the youth meets medical necessity for OLP, the OLP can provide ongoing psychotherapy, crisis intervention and treatment planning. Whether or not the youth is deemed appropriate for OLP, the OLP can also recommend the youth the other CFTS services. To meet medical necessity, the youth must have, or be at risk of developing, a behavioral health diagnosis which is impacting their functioning.
• Community Psychiatric Supports and Treatment (CPST): This service can provide a combination of six different therapeutic and functional supports, intended to address challenges with a behavioral health need and achieve identified goals or objectives. Supports can include: Intensive Interventions, Crisis Avoidance, Intermediate Term Crisis Management, Rehabilitative Psychoeducation, Strengths Based Service Planning and Rehabilitative Supports.
• Psychosocial Rehabilitation (PSR): This service is designed to restore, rehabilitate and support the youth's developmentally appropriate functioning. PSR assists with implementing interventions on a treatment plan to compensate for, or eliminate, functional deficits and interpersonal and/or behavioral health barriers associated with a youth's behavioral health needs. Activities are "hands on" and task-oriented. Service components can include a focus on strengthening social and interpersonal skills, daily living skills and community integration. 
• Family Peer Support Services: This service, provided by an individual with their own lived experience, supports families and caregivers to help address the needs of their child.
• Youth Peer Support and Training: This service, provided by an individual with their own lived experience, supports the youth in being informed and proactive in the planning and delivery of their services.

For more information about CFTSS and to get in touch with our team, please visit https://greatermentalhealth.org/cftss/

The Cross Systems Unit (CSU) provides PINS Pre-Diversion/Preventive Services to children ages 10 to 18, who are at risk of family court involvement and/or out-of-home placements. CSU is a collaboration of the Department of Probation, the Department of Social Services, and the Department of Community Mental Health. Together, we use a multidisciplinary approach to create family-driven, strength-based, and individualized responses that assure safety and well-being of youth and families throughout Westchester County. MHA mental health care managers bring an array of services and expertise for children with serious social, emotional, and behavioral challenges. CSU provides an assessment, by a team of experts in the field, and offer a menu of services to best meet the needs of the family. Pre-Diversion/Preventive Services include casework counseling, information and referral, and a variety of contracted services, including family therapy and substance use and mental health treatment. CSU is a contract service through the Westchester County Department of Social Services.

For more information about CSU and to get in touch, please visit our new website at https://greatermentalhealth.org/cross-systems-unit/

Our Crisis Stabilization program provides an innovative team approach to stabilizing children at risk for behavioral health crises through short-term mental health consultation and treatment, intensive crisis respite support, and family peer advocacy. These services are provided to children and their families at home or other community-based locations by a team of professionals representing a variety of agencies, including MHA.  Crisis Stabilization services are available to children whose symptoms and behaviors put them at risk for admission to a psychiatric hospital or ER, but for whom safety can be assured for at least 72 hours (child is not at imminent risk of danger to self or others). Crisis Stabilization is contracted through the Department of Community Mental Health.

Our Mobile Mental Health clinicians provide mental health treatment and care management services in the home, or other community location, for high-risk children between the ages of five and 18 who have behavioral health conditions and have had difficulty benefiting from traditional behavioral health treatments in a clinic setting.  The goal is to address emotional and behavioral concerns from a family perspective, help the youth and family develop better coping strategies, and avoid out of home placement or psychiatric hospitalization.  Our clinicians support recovery by providing services that reflect our deeply held values that include the recognition of individual rights of self-determination, choice, shared decision-making and collaboration.

For more information about Mobile Mental Health and to get in touch with our team, please visit our new website at https://greatermentalhealth.org/mobile-mental-health/

Assigned by a Family Court Judge, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs) are trained community volunteers who monitor and report on the physical health, behavioral health and education needs of children who are in foster care or at risk for foster care. CASA volunteers fulfill their role through telephone and face-to-face contacts with the child, biological and foster parents, case managers and other service providers who are involved in the child’s life. Volunteers can be assigned at any point in the case and remain assigned until permanency – with either the biological or extended family or through adoption – is achieved. Volunteers are also required to commit to one year of service, complete background clearances and attend 30 hours of initial training. Much of the CASA’s work occurs Monday through Friday during regular business hours. 

Learn more about the vital role of a CASA volunteer in this short video below:

For more information, please contact Michaele McIlnay at 914-345-5900, ext. 7518 or mcilnaym@mhawestchester.org.

For the approximate 400 Westchester County children in foster care, frequent and ongoing contact with their families is critical. Visiting reduces the trauma that children experience by being separated and increases their chances of living in a permanent home. Host Visitation volunteers, or Visit Hosts, are professionally trained community volunteers who support families by supervising and supporting them as they visit one another. Using Coached Visitation, a model developed by Marty Beyer, Ph.D., Visit Hosts guide parents as they cope with their own feelings, respond to the unique needs of their children and build on the strengths in each family. Coached visitation helps parents plan for meaningful visits in a natural and community-based environment whenever possible.
Host Visitation is a contract service through the Westchester County Department of Social Services.

To learn more, please contact Randi Menchel at 917-992-3068 or menchelr@mhawestchester.org. 

For more information, please contact Michaele McIlnay at 914-345-5900, ext. 7518 or mcilnaym@mhawestchester.org.

Break The Hold (BTH), an initiative established by the Halloran family of Pleasantville, is now a program under MHA’s umbrella. The Hallorans formed BTH in honor of their late son, Brian Thomas Halloran, who died by suicide in 2018 at the age of 19. The mission is to build resilience and reduce the risk of suicide through education, advocacy and raised awareness about depression and other mental health challenges and their impact on individuals, their families in schools and communities.

For more information about BTH and upcoming events, visit bthbreakthehold.org. To learn more, please contact Shannon Catauro at 914-265-7512 or catauros@mhawestchester.org

Health Home Serving Children (HHSC) is a care management program for children aged birth to twenty-one years of age.  Children are eligible for services by qualifying in one the following categories: Severely Emotionally Disturbed, HIV, Complex Trauma or by having two or more qualifying medical conditions. HHSC Care Management Services are individualized, community-based care coordination to children and their families to improve the family’s ability to keep the child at home and out of residential care. Services focus on reducing emergency room visits and inpatient hospitalizations.  Specially trained Care Managers experienced in working with children who have serious emotional/behavioral issues meet regularly with children and families in their homes. Staff collaborates with parents and community service providers using a strength-based model which identifies a care team for each family, and advocates for needed and appropriate services to promote the successful care of children within their homes and communities.  Care Managers provide 24-hour telephonic crisis intervention services and arranges for therapeutic, educational, recreational, respite and family support services.