| Press Release |
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| December 6, 2007 |
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Governor's Children's Mental Health Advisors Recommend Launching "Oregon Wraparound" Program
Salem – In an event at the ChristieCare Center for Children in Lake Oswego today, Governor Ted Kulongoski received the final report of the Statewide Children’s Wraparound Steering Committee, a group he created by Executive Order in March of this year.
The Steering Committee was charged to develop a strategic plan for Oregon’s children facing complex physical and mental health needs. The goal of the committee is to set a roadmap that will guide Oregon to:
- Providing service and support as early as possible so that children can be successful in their homes, schools and communities;
- Making service and support available based on the individual needs of the child and family – rather than on system requirements; and
- Maximizing the resources available to serve children and families across systems, so the mental health needs of Oregon’s children are appropriately and effectively met.
“This report is a roadmap that will guide the total transformation of Oregon’s delivery of behavioral health services for children,” said the Governor. “I am dedicated to ensuring that in Oregon every child – including children with mental health issues – is safe at home, out of trouble, and in school.”
Oregon state agencies have worked independently for years to improve behavioral health services for children within their own systems. However, too often these efforts are not coordinated across agency boundaries.
“Wraparound” is an approach to implementing individualized, comprehensive services within a coordinated network of services for children and youth with emotional and behavioral challenges.
At the event, Stacy Allen told the story about how the Wraparound Initiative helped her and Adriana Rickard of Portland described the experience of her family, which counts on integrated services for their young child.
Allen, who is 18 years old and lives in The Dalles, said she had been self-medicating with methamphetamines instead of getting the mental health services she needed. However, the local Wraparound Initiative in The Dalles helped her turn her life around. Today she is getting her GED and on a path toward college.
“Wraparound gave me hope,” she told Governor Kulongoski and the audience for the event today. “And now I hope every family in the state who needs it can get the same kind of help.”
Also at the event was Lynne Saxton, Executive Director of ChristieCare, Mary Lou Johnson of the Centennial School District, Multnomah County Judge Nan Waller, foster parent Rev. Donald Foster, Sharon Guidera, Executive Director for Mid-Columbia Center for Living,
“The changed lives of the young people and their families I met today are proof that Oregon is moving in the right direction with the Wraparound Initiative,” said the Governor. “From improved academic performance, fewer encounters with the criminal justice system, and improved mental and physical health – all of these result in children who are better positioned to succeed in school and in life, and families that are stronger and can stay together.”
The Governor pledged to do everything in his power to advance the recommendations in the Steering Committee’s Report, starting with the critical next steps the Committee recommended to begin implementing the Initiative as part of his 2009 - 2001 legislative agenda and recommended budget.
For a copy of the report, go to:
www.oregon.gov/dhs/mentalhealth/wraparound/main.shtml/
For a copy of the executive order, go to:
http://governor.oregon.gov/Gov/eo0704.pdf
Contact:
Patty Wentz, 503-378-6169
Rem Nivens, 503-378-6496
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