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ABC Initiative Helping Families to Achieve Better Mental Health

Posted on: Monday, 3 April 2006, 12:00 CDT

By Erica Blake, The Blade, Toledo, Ohio

Apr. 3--After losing her third, and final, child to sickle cell anemia in 2004, Freada Tucker thought she had been dealt the last of what she was mentally capable of handling.

But soon after, she found herself raising her daughter's two young children.

Living every day in a tender emotional state but trying to remain strong for her grandchildren, Ms. Tucker, 54, knew she needed help. Not only did she face her own dips into depression but she was now responsible for two youngsters who had emotional disorders of their own.

Phone call after phone call led Ms. Tucker through Lucas County's mental health system and, finally, to the doorstep of a program facilitated by the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Greater Toledo. Now she is part of 25 families in the county who receive intensive support from county agencies for everything from special programs for the children to help with maintaining her house.

Recognizing the need to better help children with mental health issues, the state of Ohio has been funneling money to counties as part of its Access to Better Care, or ABC, initiative. Lucas County recently learned that it would receive $200,000 over the next 18 months in "blueprint funding" from the state to create pilot programs for youths throughout the county.

ABC is a statewide children's initiative enacted as part of Ohio's biennial budget. Counting on the involvement and input of parents, advocates, and state and local leaders, the initiative emphasizes:

* Prevention.

* Early intervention.

* Treatment for youths with severe emotional disorders.

"The key to it is using the words, 'I need help,' " Ms. Tucker said from her North Toledo home that she shares with her husband, grandchildren, and dog. "The more you understand, the better you are able to deal with it."

Ms. Tucker's journey has led her through several programs designed to help her and her grandchildren. Funded by the state, the programs focus on providing access to behavioral health services to those who need it most.

According to the Ohio Department of Mental Health, the ABC initiative responds to the concern that a "lack of access to care can lead to school failure, suicide, criminal behavior, unwanted pregnancy, and other expensive problems that present a growing challenge for Ohio's foster care and juvenile justice systems."

The goal is to serve children, adolescents, and their families without forcing them into the state's system, said Marci Dvorack, executive director of the National Alliance for Mental Illness of Greater Toledo. Although not a problem in Lucas County, parents in other parts of the state were learning that they could not afford mental health care for their children and so they gave up custody to the state, she said.

Access to Better Care was created to end that practice.

In Lucas County, the $200,000 grant will fund two programs, including a partnership with the Learning Club, an after-school educational program for at-risk youths and adults. Beginning in the fall, the partnership will train teachers to work with kids with behavioral problems so that when kids are having a hard time, they are not kicked out of the program, said Karen Olnhausen of the mental health board.

A second initiative will be to study the academic successes and failures of students identified as having emotional disorders so the county has a better understanding of how to help them, said Ms. Olnhausen, director of Child, Adolescent, and Transitional Services. Currently, about 5,000 Lucas County youths with mental illness are served by the Mental Health Board, she said.

The programs will be added to what the county has already done, such as implementing the maternal depression pilot program, said David Kontur, executive director of Lucas County Family Council. This program trains those who work with new mothers to look for early signs of depression so that women can receive help before it's too late.

Other counties throughout the region have received state money to address the issue.

In Sandusky County, a $100,000 grant was used to expand the Strengthening Families program, which consists of a series of meetings for not only a troubled child but their families, said Cathy Glassford, director of the Sandusky County Family and Children First Council. The program began with those referred from juvenile court and will be expanded to include more teens aged 13 to 17.

In Defiance County officials have pooled resources with surrounding counties. The focus is to raise awareness among community members that mental health is a local issue that is best treated by keeping families functioning together in their homes.

Early intervention is the focus of the social and emotional screening pilot program in Hancock County. One of six counties in the state to do the screening, Hancock County sends the data collected from parents of youngsters age 3 and younger to the state each month to show whether emotional disorders can be detected at that age.

"We're finding them," said Sara Kuhlwein, project coordinator for Help Me Grow, a program that works with parents of young children.

In Toledo, Ms. Tucker has watched her now 13-year-old granddaughter and 11-year-old grandson overcome several barriers, including difficulties in school and times when they just plain acted out. Once exhausted and at her wit's end, Ms. Tucker said she has a smoothly running household - at least most of the time.

And when there's a blip in their lives, she attacks the problem head-on, relies on her faith, and reaches for the phone, where she knows there are people who can help.

"I try to look at everything as a positive because a negative will take you down. I've been down there and there's nothing there," she said. "But being positive will bring you back up where there is light."

Those looking for behavioral and emotional health services for youths should contact the Lucas County Mental Health Board.

Contact Erica Blake at: eblake@theblade.com or 419-724-6076.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Blade, Toledo, Ohio

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Source: The Blade

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