A new mental health children’s program was unveiled Thursday morning at the Wilmington Convention Center.
Trillium Health Services, a governmental agency that manages mental health, substance use and intellectual/developmental disability services across eastern North Carolina, described the 2020 Child Vision program to more than 350 mental health professionals, advocates and educators in attendance at the conference.
Trillium is headquartered in Greenville, but has a district office in Wilmington.
“2020 Child Vision is our effort to really improve the quality and availability of child mental health and substance abuse services,” said Leza Wainwright, Trillium’s CEO. “We are here today with a lot of agency staff and many of our provider partners to launch this new vision. It’s an exciting time.”
Trillium employs a staff of 440 people.
Thursday’s keynote address was given by Darrell Scott, who saw his life radically change on April 20, 1999, when his 17-year-old daughter, Rachel, was the first person shot and killed at Columbine High School in Colorado. Scott now speaks at educational conferences around the country on the topic of mental health.
2020 Child Vision will be implemented over a multi-year process, Wainwright explained, with the goal of creating a supportive community that provides the protective environmental fabric for children and youth to thrive and live healthy lives.
The primary focus of the initiative is to make sure current services for children are accessible throughout the area for everyone. Services include Child Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) by using the Child First model for the under 6 years old population. Child First uses CPP as its therapeutic intervention by the CPP rostered clinician and adds a bachelor’s-level Family Resource Partner to assist the family getting connected to the needed resources.
Additional programs and resources being considered for this year include: High Fidelity Wraparound, Comprehensive Health Assessment Tool (CHAT), Substance Abuse Treatment for youth 12-17 years old, transitional services for youth aging out of foster care and Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) for the treatment of youth with autism spectrum disorders.
Trillium doesn’t provide the direct care, but rather the organization partners with agencies and licensed therapists in a provider network to offer services and supports to people in need in or near their own communities.
“We are funded by the state. Our biggest funding source is Medicaid. We also get some direct state appropriations and some county dollars,” Wainwright said. She added that the demands on Trillium are growing.
“North Carolina is a growing state, and statistics show that one out of every five children has some emotional disturbance, some sort of mental illness. Our goal is to intervene as quickly as possible so that what might start out as a small problem doesn’t turn into a big problem later in life.”
Trillium currently serves more than 50,000 people a year.
The new 2020 Child Vision initiative means local agencies in the Wilmington area will most likely see an increased need for their services.
“We have room for new students, and we just expanded our building with new theater space. So we can serve more kids each day,” said Amber Watkins, associate director of Dreams of Wilmington, a nonprofit dedicated to young people that offers free classes and workshops in the literary, visual, multimedia and performing arts.
“Trillium providers will refer kids to us, for our program,” Watkins said.
“We ensure the delivery of the right services, in the right amount, at the right time,” Wainwright added. “We also work collaboratively with local nonprofits, other governmental agencies, medical providers and hospitals to create a holistic system of total patient care.”
Trillium Health Resources currently serves 24 counties across eastern North Carolina.
