What are the Thrive Initiative and a Trauma -Informed System of Care?
Recent studies have documented that exposure to trauma, left untreated, can interfere with children's healthy brain development and lead to mental health challenges.
Because trauma has many sources - physical or sexual abuse, domestic violence, exposure to violent acts and natural disasters among others - the treatment of trauma lends itself perfectly to a system of care approach. Children with a history of trauma can show up in any place: in school, in a community mental health center, in a homeless shelter, in a foster home, or even in a youth correctional facility. Families often face a bewildering maze of services available through schools, communities, health care providers, counseling agencies, law enforcement, just to name a few. Getting connected with the right services at the right time and learning how they can work together can be one of the toughest challenges.
Who is involved and what is happening in Maine?
The Thrive Initiative is a partnership between Children's Behavioral Health Services, a division of the State of Maine's Department of Health & Human Services, the lead agency Tri-County Mental Health Services, and other providers in Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties. This six year initiative is funded in part by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the state of Maine. The population of focus that the Thrive Initiative seeks to impact is youth (birth to 20) who struggle with mental health issues, are involved with child welfare or juvenile justice, and reside in the three counties. Youth do not require a “trauma diagnosis. A system of care recognizes that trauma often does not manifest itself in a simple diagnosis for children and youth.
What can the Thrive Initiative do for me?
What can the Thrive Initiative do for me?
The Thrive Initiative recognizes that youth and families are impacted in one
way or another by trauma and that seeking services is sometimes frustrating
and potentially retraumatizing. Thrive is working with its partners to improve
mental health services in Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties and create
a system of care that is trauma informed. There are several ways in which
Thrive seeks to do this:
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Youth & Families in need of services: Thrive can provide a family partner to assist the youth and family in navigating the system and making the service connections that will lead to improved outcomes.
Providers: Thrive can provide technical assistance and training on trauma specific evidence based practices, trauma informed theory, family driven care, youth guided involvement & cultural and linguistic competency.
Youth, Families & Community Members: Thrive committees seek meaningful family and youth involvement to lend their voice when it comes to improving the service system, i.e. planning consumer driven conferences, reviewing state policies, identifying system outcomes.
Click here to view a fact sheet about System of Care Outcomes
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