Partnership with Meta House

Meta House is an internationally-recognized treatment program for women struggling with drug and alcohol addiction and their children. Meta House’s services help women stop using alcohol and drugs, and also assist them in tackling a host of other challenges such as past trauma, parenting, poverty, unemployment, poor physical/mental health, etc. Their innovative and holistic treatment programs have been proven successful.

Meta House has three grants from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to provide substance abuse treatment to women and their children. Below is a brief outline of three ongoing programs funded by the grants.

Preserving and Reuniting Families in Recovery (PRFR) provides residential treatment to women with substance use and co-occurring mental health disorders who are pregnant or postpartum and to their children, while also serving children’s fathers, partners, and other family members.

Recovery and Health (R&H) provides outpatient treatment to women with substance use disorders who are at high risk of HIV infection/transmission and to their children.

Housed in Recovery (HIR) provides outpatient treatment and facilitates housing for homeless women and their children in early recovery from substance use and co-occurring mental health disorders.

The Planning Council has developed a long-term partnership with Meta House to help them evaluate the work that they do. We are currently collaborating with them to evaluate the abovementioned programs through pre-post analyses of extensive interview data collected from women at program intake, at discharge, and at six- and 12-month follow-ups.

To know more about Meta House and their services, please go to their website: http://metahouse.org/index.html

Planning Council Supports Mental Health Services for Youth

Did you know that...

• Research predicts that approximately 26,000 children living in Milwaukee currently have an unmet need for mental health treatment?
• In 2008, the Planning Council for Health and Human Services, Inc. facilitated an outcome-focused planning process to develop strategies to help students with emergent mental health needs achieve educational and life success?
• The Greater Milwaukee Foundation recently awarded $150,000 to the Planning Council to support a coalition in implementing a pilot program to improve youth mental health services?

Milwaukee's Youth Mental Health Initiative (MYMHI) is a pilot program that will allow community providers to deliver services in schools or other convenient locations, raise awareness about mental health among teachers and parents, and develop policy solutions to sustain funding for mental health services for youth over the long-term.

Partners include representatives from Pathfinders, Aurora Family Services, Rogers Memorial Hospital, Sebastian Family Psychology Practice, Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), the City Health Department, Milwaukee County, Medical College of Wisconsin, and HMOs.

MYMHI will be implemented this fall in four diverse MPS schools (Hopkins Street Elementary School, Audubon Technology and Communications Center, Wedgewood Park International School, and O.W. Holmes Elementary School), and will focus on students who have needs that extend beyond what can be addressed in a traditional school setting, but are not yet at a crisis level.

Planning Council Supports Latino Older Adults

Did you know that…

· The prevalence of depression among elderly Latinos is higher than for the general population of older adults?
· Studies show that Latinos underutilize mental health services in general and often do not receive treatment for depression?
· Centro de la Communidad Unida / United Community Center (UCC) has established the Un Nuevo Amanecer / A New Dawn program, funded by SAMHSA’s Center for Mental Health Services, to provide services to elderly Latinos who are experiencing symptoms of depression?

The Planning Council is currently working in partnership with UCC to evaluate the Un Nuevo Amanecer program. The program uses an evidence-based model to assist participants who have symptoms of serious depression. Midway through the three year grant, 108 elderly Latinos have been served by the program. Preliminary findings comparing program participants’ emotional and physical status when they entered the program to their status six month later indicate that:
· Participants’ level of depression has decreased substantially,
· Participants’ level of physical functioning has increased, and
· Participants have felt more socially connected.

To learn more about Un Nuevo Amanecer program or other services provided by Centro de la Communidad Unida / United Community Center, visit their website at http://www.unitedcc.org.

Status Report on Older Adults in Milwaukee County With Mental Health and Co-Occurring Disorders

Is Milwaukee County prepared for the mental health needs of older adults over the next 10 to 15 years? This report contains a diagnostic profile of the county's older adults with mental illness, an inventory of programs serving them, a discussion of barriers to services, and a summary of evidence-based practices. It also contains population projections for older adults in Milwaukee County through 2020.

Published March, 2004
Download the article in .pdf format (961KB)
Status Report on Older Adults in Milwaukee County With Mental Health and Co-Occurring Disorders