Case Management Services
According to an Ethiopian proverb, “When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion.” The aim of Walden House (WH)’s project, Webs of Support (WEBS), is to confront a systemic barrier as it implements an intervention to reduce the relapse of substance use disordered (SUD) youth with multiple needs from underserved populations. WH works with other stakeholders to address the lack of collaborative coordination of culturally competent services for this population in their communities. WH utilizes an evidence-based family centered intervention to amplify the bridging and integration of SUD youth back into family and community after residential treatment as a process that begins at the point of entry into treatment and requires coordinated, collaborative community based resources.
WH’s project, Webs of Support, utilizes A-CRA (Adolescent Community Reinforcement Approach) and ACC (Assertive Continuing Care Protocol) as centerpiece strategies to amplify the bridging and integration of SUD youth back into family and community after residential treatment, with transition back to the community framed as a process that begins at the point of entry into treatment and requires coordinated, collaborative community based resources. Webs of Support targets youth and their families from some of the County’s most distressed locales to reduce the relapse of substance use disordered (SUD) youth with multiple needs from underserved populations, and work with other stakeholders to address the lack of collaborative coordination of culturally competent services for this population in their communities. The project’s target population consists of vulnerable youth and their families, specifically SUD youth ages 13-24 and a parent/caregiver/ supporter, who are enrolled in a residential program. The program comprises four stages: Stage I consists of the 12 week A-CRA intervention for youth in residential treatment and their family or care-giver; Stage II is a case management period which ideally takes place during the youth’s last three months of residential treatment. In this phase, the youth, family, and WEBS staff research and draft a comprehensive after-care plan focused on the following five areas: education, employment, sobriety, family/housing, and community “give-back;” Stage III is the 12 week ACC focused, home-based phase where WEBS staff visit the youth and family on a weekly basis to support the previously created, five-part aftercare plan. Stage IV, which will take place during Stage III, is based on the basic principle of recovery which states: “you can’t keep it unless you give it away.” This phase is the delivery of the fifth goal of the aftercare plan. The youth and their family take the knowledge, wisdom, and experience they have gained during the WEBS process, and share it with youth and families in the very beginning of their Phase II process. The WEBS project’s overall purpose is to build on the successes of residential treatment by offering multifaceted support to build the youth’s ability to navigate the community environment safely as well as to strengthen the family unit as a social support for the youth.
Cited, coincidentally, in San Francisco’s Community Needs Assessment 2005, Mapping the Future of San Francisco’ Services to Children, Youth, and Their Families, San Francisco is both a city and a county; for the purposes of this proposal, San Francisco will be referred to in terms of its county status (“the County of San Francisco”) to remind readers of the size and scope of concerns under consideration, along with the county/city dual status.
YTEC or The Principal’s Center Collaborative
Walden House partners with a number of community programs and agencies to provide services at this high school where the classrooms are day treatment drug programs for adolescents with a substance abuse history, probated through the San Francisco Juvenile Drug Court.
For more information on any of our Adolescent Services, please contact us.
