All correspondence must be made through the Vendor Portal. Specifications include, but are not limited to: I. Background: The Cook County Hospital Department of Behavioral Health announces the availability of funds for the expansion or development of a Youth Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) team for Cook County on the south side and near westside to the Loop. The Youth Act team will serve children/youth with Serious emotional Disturbance (SED), who are returning home form an inpatient or residential setting, individuals at risk or entering such a setting, or have not engaged or responded treatment in more traditional community settings. II. Objective: This program will ensure the child/youth and family will have the level of support services and access to clinical professionals they require to sustain any gains made in crisis or high-end services. It will deliver intensive, coordinated individualized care as well as skilled therapeutic interventions through integrated, multidisciplinary team approach to achieve success and maintain the child in the home, school, and community. This is the goal of the ACT team. III. Services: These services should be provided by the child/youth ACT team staff and not be brokered, the services will be delivered in the home, community or at school. Team interventions are focused on the individual’s significant functional impairments due to mental illness or serious emotional disturbance (SED). Clinical and rehabilitative interventions are focused on enhancing family function to foster the wellbeing, stability, and re-integration for child/youth. The services delivered will focus on family, youth guided developmentally appropriate approaches that address the comprehensive needs of the child/youth within the family, school, medical, psychosocial and community. To address the needs of the children or adolescents eligible for this comprehensive service, The Youth Act Team is made up of mental health clinicians, professional staff such as LCSW, and psychiatric prescribers. Other members include peer advocates family and youth, clinical staff, and program assistant. This program will follow Evidenced Based Interventions that focus on family, and other natural supports to assist the child or adolescent in making meaningful transitions from home to school and community into adulthood. The ACT team must ensure that the services are comprehensive, and principle driven. This service is 7days a week and 24 hours a day if indicated. Two awards will be available, one the south side and 1 for the near west side to the Loop. The agency must demonstrate the capacity to provide services to individual’s up to age 21 with serious emotional (SED) or have a mental illness diagnosis. The child must be at least the age of 10 at time of enrollment and should be served up to the age of 21 if indicated. One award for the south side and one award for the northwest side to the Loop will be made through this RFP. Youth Act Team start-up will include CCH involvement to provide support around determining the readiness of the chosen agency to run the Child/Youth Act Team. There will be one monthly call to each of the awardees for the first three month of the implementation of the program. The Child/Youth ACT Provider will follow the Youth ACT Model, delivering services that comprehensively address the needs of the child/youth within the family unit, school, medical, behavioral, psychosocial and community domains. The provider may receive referrals from SASS, DCFS, or local school or family members. The Youth Act provider will have the capacity to serve 35 or 45 children and families in each team, depending upon the needs of the area, the number of children eligible to receive the Child/Youth Act, and the capacity to maintain the required staffing levels. The applicant must provide the capacity of the team by providing historical and or current data/information on the volume of youth in the designated area for the awardee who are likely to meet eligibility criteria. The applicant will also need to submit three letters of support for the program that verify the need and endorse the proposed team size by the applicant. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) core principles for delivering care to children and youth services must be followed to keep the youth in the home, avoid out of home placements as much as possible. Provide developmentally appropriate services and supports that treat a child as a child and a youth as a youth rather than having expectations as the same needs as an adult. Integrate family and youth peer support providers and individuals with lived experience in planning, implementing, and evaluating services. Meet the needs of all families by providing culturally and linguistically appropriate, equity driven services. Utilize crisis systems that adopt the core principles outlined in the National Guidelines for Behavioral Health Crisis Care- Best Practices.
