Orange County System of Care has a “two-part” governance structure, made up of the Full Partnership and the Orange County Interagency Collaboration Team. Both leadership groups meet monthly. The Full Partnership includes families, youth and agency representatives as members. In addition, there are a number of workgroups for specialized interests.
Full Partnership
The Full Partnership is a broad-based community participation group that is responsible for sharing in the decision-making for System of Care.
Who Can Join: Anyone in the community can join.
Meetings: Third Thursday of every other month from 5 – 7 pm at Orange County Department of Mental Health, 30 Harriman Drive, Goshen, NY. Please check our event calendar for updated meetings.
Orange County Interagency Collaboration Team
The Orange County Interagency Collaboration Team is a forum for family representatives, program leaders, and policy level administrators from local schools, courts and government to work together, maintain communication and linkages and promote a creative, effective and efficient community services system which supports children and their families.
For more information contact Tammy Rhein at trhein@orangecountygov.com or call 845-360-6710.
Work Groups
Cross-System Management Information System (MIS)
This group helps to plan and develop our centralized information system. Staff and agencies can struggle to provide the best treatment for each child or young adult when important information is missing or not shared. Families are often placed in the position of having to tell their stories many times to different helping agencies. They often have a hard time keeping track of what services they received, from which agencies, when these services were received, and what specific services were helpful. The Management Information System (MIS) helps families share this history and information between members of their Child and Family Team, which enables better treatment, timeliness of referrals and services, improved follow-up and increased understanding of what services and supports are effective.
Who Can Join: Open to anyone with an interest in information management.
Meetings: Contact Angela Turk, aturk@orangecountygov.com
Cultural and Linguistic Competence (CLC)
The group discusses how to eliminate barriers to services, gaps in services, and ways to reach underserved and under-represented cultural groups. We promote cultural competency in the county and our prospective agencies.
Who Can Join: Anyone who is involved in System of Care.
Meetings: Meetings alternate between Newburgh and Middletown locations. Please download the pdf for the complete 2012 schedule. For more information contact Liliana Fernandez, lfernandez@mhaorangeny.com
Evaluation
Come and join our workgroup! We are a small group of family members, youth and young adults, service providers and researchers who meet in a relaxed environment over lunch. We discuss what the evaluation is discovering about the Oranage County System of Care and how we can best share this with the community. We need your input to ensure that System of Care is reaching its goals. Interested in helping? This is not a stats class! Come to a meeting to find out what it’s all about.
This is what you might expect to do at a meeting: help us interpret the data we’re collecting (what does all this mean?) and determine the best ways to share results with the community (for example, the style of presentations, where to make presentations, making reports accessible to all). Here are just a few things we’ve done recently: created an online survey for families, youth, providers, and supports; helped categorize and interpret findings from various surveys; reviewed and advised on language in evaluation reports; met with family and youth groups to either gather information or share data already collected; and much, much more.
Who Can Join: Anyone who is involved with the System of Care and has an interest in how it is evaluated or in how the data collected can be put to good use, is welcome at our workgroup. You don’t need to know anything about evaluation or statistics to be a part of our group. Come join us for lunch!
When We Meet: First Thursday of every month at noon, and at most Full Partnership meetings (third Thursday). Contact Ann Cleary, acleary@albany.edu
Social Marketing
Social marketing influences perceptions and actions in ways that positively benefit both the target audience and our general society. If you know who Smoky Bear is and what he asks us to do (“Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires”) you have experienced social marketing. This group works to increase awareness of the mental health services and supports that exist for children and young adults in our community, and the benefits of partnerships among mental health providers, intermediary or stakeholder groups/organizations, and the public. It also works to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness by increasing public acceptance and understanding in our community, and encourages families to seek help for their child/young adult. Projects have included planning the activities and events that celebrate Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week and developing our System of Care logo.
Who Can Join: Open to anyone, those with an interest in helping change public perceptions about children’s mental health treatment and recovery.
Meetings: Fourth Thursday of every month. Contact Suzanne O’Boyle at soboyle@orangecountygov.com or soboyle@mysystemofcare.org or call 845-360-6717 for more information.
Service Delivery
This group addresses service needs, service access, and quality of care for those referred for System of Care services. It is currently comprised of service providers and administrators from the county departments of mental health, probation, and social services, not-for profit agencies, family support, family members, youth and community members. Recent projects included the development of a two-track system at intake in order to manage the high level of referrals and better connect children, youth, and young adults to services.
Who Can Join: Anyone who is involved with the System of Care.
Meetings: Contact Angela Turk, aturk@orangecountygov.com
Strategic Planning
This committee makes sure that System of Care activities, programs and services follow the goals and objectives in our strategic plan. It helps set the pace for accomplishing System of Care goals, reviews any proposed changes to the strategic plan before the proposal is brought to the Full Partnership, is responsible for the System of Care budget, and makes budget decisions regarding day to day operations that are then brought to the Full Partnership for endorsement. Projects have included developing the plan for how our community will have input on how System of Care spends Year I unspent dollars, and determining how much money will be needed for Community Alternatives for Court Involved youth start-up costs.
Who Can Join: Open to anyone with an interest in planning.
Meetings: Contact Liz Holbrook, Chief Clerk, OC Family Court, P: 845.291.3033, eholbroo@courts.state.ny.us
Youth Groups
Orange County System of Care Youth Board
The youth group works as equal partners alongside professionals, parents and community members to improve mental health services in our community. This group supports meaningful participation of youth, and provides input about the best possible ways to provide services and supports to youth and their families.
Who Can Join: Young adults age 16-25 years old, with experience in one or more systems (mental health, child welfare, juvenile justice, substance abuse, and/or school issues).
Meetings: Meetings are held monthly. Contact Suzanne O’Boyle at soboyle@orangecountygov.com
VoicesUnited4Change
VoicesUnited4Change is made up of parents, youth, family members and community members who are champions for children’s mental health. For more information please visit www.voicesunited4change.org or contact Saul Kleinman at kleinman.saul@gmail.com