Behavioral Health Case Study
Organization: Omni Youth Services
URL: http://www.omniyouth.org/counseling/
Program Name: Omni Youth Service Counseling and Mental Health
Location of Instruction: In the counseling building in Wheeling, IL
Length of Instruction (# of Sessions and Hours per Session): 2 hours, 7 weeks
Class Size: About 8 in each class
Target Audience: Junior and High School students with Medicaid
Audience Demographics: Jr and High School, expanding into young adulthood, 10-20 years old and families; 35-40% are bi-lingual (Hispanic); in general, serve lower socio-economic status; services for LGBTQ being marketed more heavily; 10% of clients identify as LGBTQ
What Problem is Being Solved? Provide a group therapy that provides for helping the cause of why some of the issues they have are contributing to the trouble they are having in relationships and why relationship problems are contributing to the cause of other issues.
Challenges? We see a huge deficit in the understanding of sexual wellness in our audience of adolescents. This curriculum has helped us to meet this need.
Program Recruitment: Omni Youth has a strong presence in the high school using Love Notes as a prevention program/those youth referred by pediatricians and family doctors/few mental health agencies in the area (those that take Medicaid)/Mental Health agencies in area/Omni can get youth in to see someone within 7-10 days, so they have good reputation/Omni has been around for 45 years and has an established name in the community.
Curricula Used: Love Notes 3.0
Curricula Benefits: The curriculum is activity based. It also focuses on all issues of relationships.
Instructors: 2 instructors, with Social Work/Mental Health Counseling background/ working towards or has Masters/on the road to Licensure or has a License.
Observable Outcomes: It has helped to meet the relationship needs of those we see with mental illness and substance abuse. We have youth coming out of therapy that are better informed in the relationship area.
Challenges: People coming in and out of group
Tips for Others: Important in a group therapy setting to hire those trained in mental health background so that they can constantly screen the individuals in the group for any other support services they might need.