Dallas Metrocare recently received a grant from the Hogg Foundation in April 2005. This grant provides skills training services to children and adolescents whose parent(s) are Spanish-speaking. It is funded for a one-year period and will provide services to 100-150 youth and their families with an estimated length of stay at 4-6 months per family.

The goal of the grant is to provide skills training services to at least 100 children and adolescents within the NorthSTAR region who would no longer be eligible to receive the services from NorthSTAR. According to Daniel Bird, the Supervisor for the Program, “These are the children and adolescents who would normally TRAG into the internalizing service packages 1.2, 2.3, or 2.4.” The service array is inclusive of case coordination which is similar to the Service Coordination/ICM, Skills Training and Psychiatric Medication Monitoring.

Currently, there are two full-time bi-lingual staff members providing services to 40 children/youth and their families. This number is expected to grow as more families are identified.

Program Dynamics:

• Financial eligibility criteria are identical to NorthSTAR/CHIP. The child or youth must be experiencing an internalizing disorder and/or meet the criteria of service package 1.2, 2.3, or 2.4 based on the CA-TRAG levels developed by the State.
• The initial intake appointment as well as the med-management appointments is office-based.

Mr. Byrd stated that he believes, “this is a fantastic opportunity to enable Dallas Metrocare to reach the significantly underserved Hispanic population. The program will also be informative to Spanish-speaking families and hopefully they can receive more services.” Further he states, “the goal is to continue the growth of the program based on the projected outcome”.

Congratulations to Dallas Metrocare children and adolescent services for their effort to reach one- teach one by providing services and education for children/youth and their families.

Families may be referred to the Eastside Clinic at, (214) 381-7070 or the Westside Clinic at, (214) 331-0107, for further information. For questions or comments, families may contact Mr. Byrd directly at, (972) 407-4525, ext. 1.

Cathy Givens, LMSW
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