Specifications include, but are not limited to: Alternative Living Services is the provision of in-home specialized care, transportation, and other services necessary for the health, safety, and well-being of the youth who cannot live with their families. Alternative Living Services are provided to eligible youth exhibiting maladaptive patterns of behavior, leading to clinically significant impairment or distress that cannot be treated in other less restrictive treatment settings. Youth requiring Alternative Living Services, female youth between the ages of 12 and 18, may be already in the community under supervision of an assigned Probation Officer, they may be youth completing a placement, treatment program or correctional component of a Court Order, or may be youth awaiting adjudication by a Court. Key elements of alternative living include, but are not limited to, skills teaching, therapeutic structure and routine, therapeutic recreation, motivational systems and behavioral management. Alternative Living Services seek to successfully transition youth to permanent placement by providing cognitive, behavioral, social, vocational, and other skills. PROPONENTS shall clearly articulate frequency, intensity, capacity and duration of Alternative Living Services, to include treatment modalities (e.g. cognitive-behavioral therapy, cognitive process therapy, multidimensional family therapy, motivational interviewing, creative therapies, dialectical behavioral therapy, motivational incentives, etc.) encompassed in their proposal. Applicants need to address methods they will utilize to ensure that youth receive the least restrictive level of care and intensity of treatment services, as opposed to a time driven program. Additionally, applicants shall articulate in their proposals the capacity to accept youth that have intellectual or cognitive disabilities, moderate or severe mental health conditions, chronic medical conditions that may require ongoing monitoring, histories of trauma, have experienced sexual or physical abuse, have had chronic exposure to violence, sexual offending disorders, and other populations served by DJJS.
