Young Adult Access Centers: A Massachusetts Model for Supporting Young Adults with Behavioral Health Challenges

The Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (DMH)Young Adult Access Centers are unique community spaces that serve young adults with mental health and co-occurring behavioral health concerns and support them with their transition to adulthood. These 10 Access Centers are tailored to young people ages 16 to 26, and provide drop-in services, person-centered peer mentoring, and behavioral health assistance without the need for a clinical referral or health insurance. Staff at the Access Centers includes peer mentors who are trained in evidence-based and -informed practices. The areas of support (e.g., employment, personal-effectiveness and well-being) provided by the Access Centers are modeled on the evidence-supported Transition to Independence Process (TIP) Model.1 With state funding and federal grants, Access Centers are run by community-based agencies in high need areas across the state. All services are free.

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https://behavioralhealthnews.org/young-adult-access-centers-a-massachusetts-model-for-supporting-young-adults-with-behavioral-health-challenges/

The PREPaRE School Safety and Crisis Preparedness Curriculum

The NASP PREPaRE curriculum provides relevant school and emergency preparedness personnel with comprehensive training on how to establish and serve on school safety and crisis response teams. Curriculum content supports existing school staff, in collaboration with community providers, to apply the five crisis preparedness mission areas (prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery) in their ongoing school safety efforts and emergency operations plans. The curriculum incorporates basic principles articulated by the U.S. Departments of Education (2013, 2019) and Homeland Security (2008), as well as the Incident Command System delineated by the National Incident Management System (NIMS). The empirical foundations for PREPaRE are detailed in School Crisis Prevention and Intervention: The PREPaRE Model (2nd ed.; Brock et al., 2016).

BIPOC Early Career Development Learning Community

The Children’s Behavioral Health Knowledge Center (CBHKC) will continue to offer a new workforce initiative, BIPOC Early Career Development Learning Community: The BIPOC Legacy Project started during FY ’24.  The BIPOC Legacy Project is a professional mentorship and learning community designed specifically for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Mental Health Practitioners who wish to deepen their clinical practice with youth and families, advance their professional development, and receive support from peers and seasoned professionals.

The program will run monthly for nine months and will include capacity-building group sessions that will be facilitated by Phillip A. Laidlaw, Psy.D., a Licensed Psychologist. The facilitator has extensive experience in supervising, teaching, and mentoring clinicians of color. The program will be delivered virtually and consist of various capacity-building approaches, including didactic presentations, group discussions, and experiential exercises. In addition to group learning, each participant will have up to two individual coaching sessions with a facilitator to support their implementation of the practices addressed in the group sessions. This program will have two new cohorts and one cohort for returning BIPOC Legacy Project members.

Learn more about past participants’ feedback about the learning community.

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New Publication by Our Young Adult Services Team: Relational Complexity of the Near‐Age Peer Support Provider Role in Youth and Young Adult Community Mental Health Settings