Achieving Cross-System Collaboration to Support Young People in the Transition Years: A Tip Sheet for Service Providers December 2016 What Is Cross-System Collaboration to Serve Youth? Cross-system collaboratjon can be defjned as reaching across fragmented services and systems to build constructjve working relatjonships to assist young people to achieve their goals. Cross- system collaboratjon on behalf of individual youth can also be a basis for building frameworks to meet the needs of groups of youth. Why Is Cross-System Collaboration Needed? • Gaps in services for young people are a • Young people may also have needs that are major concern, especially in rural areas. not specifjc to any system, such as learning skills in budgetjng, self-care, and managing • Young people with mental health disorders interpersonal relatjonships, to successfully have a wide range of needs related to transitjon to adulthood. health, educatjon, employment, and safe housing. • A holistjc approach is therefore ideal. • They may be served by several systems • To support young people to meet their such as child welfare, juvenile justjce, and needs across life domains, you need to vocatjonal rehabilitatjon that may or may be familiar with local, state, and federal not communicate and coordinate services. supports and their requirements and eligibility rules. 1 By Pauline Jivanjee, Eileen M. Brennan, Claudia Sellmaier, Visit us at: M. Carolina Gonzalez-Prats, and members of the Pathways htups://www.pathwaysrtc.pdx.edu/proj-ptup Transitjon Training Collaboratjve
Fragmentation Is a Problem in Systems Serving Young People • Each system serving youth and/or young • There are gaps in services due to: adults has difgerent goals. Typically, stafg » separatjon between youth and adult- have received difgerent training and serving systems, have developed difgerent cultures that » age-based eligibility policies and criteria, include values, beliefs, attjtudes, customs, and problem-solving approaches, and jargon. » preferences by some groups of young • Increasing specializatjon has led to even people, such as youth of color and stronger immersion in the knowledge LGBTQIA2-S youth and young adults, to and culture of their own group, making be served by culturally-specifjc agencies teamwork diffjcult (Hall, 2005; Kapp et al., or programs focused on their specifjc 2013). needs. • Service providers may be reluctant to collaborate because of confjdentjality rules. “There won’t be any effective change or help to youth if one system is hogging information or is unwilling to work with other systems.” – [young adult consultant] 2
Supports for Collaboration and Teamwork to Better Serve Young People Ideally, organizatjons serving youth and young • clear agreements about confjdentjality; adults have in place policies, procedures, and • release of informatjon forms to allow structures to support collaboratjon, such as: informatjon fmow across relevant systems; • agency-level representatjves or teams • liaisons or coordinatjon specialists assigned meetjng regularly to resolve any tensions to service users; that arise between providers; • regular cross-training of stafg to clarify • writuen interagency agreements and expectatjons; and practjce guidelines in place to coordinate • reduced caseloads to allow tjme for referral and service delivery across collaboratjon (Darlington & Feeney, 2008; systems; Kapp et al., 2013; U.S. GAO Report, 2008). • clearly defjned roles; Making Collaboration Happen Even where there are no formal inter-agency youth don’t “belong” to one system but are served by all relevant systems. systems and supports in place, individual stafg can develop attjtudes, knowledge, skills, and • Arrange joint case conferences or relatjonships to facilitate collaboratjon. Wraparound-type meetjngs, negotjatjng confjdentjality and sharing informatjon. • Start by defjning the needs of a specifjc young person and clearly specify roles and • Take tjme to clarify roles, resolve boundary leadership. issues, and identjfy a lead agency to meet youth and family needs more efgectjvely. • Include providers from both the youth and adult systems as well as from housing and • Practjce demonstratjng mutual respect for homeless services, vocatjonal rehabilitatjon, each other’s knowledge, skills, and roles. child welfare, juvenile or adult criminal • Maintain regular contact. justjce, or other relevant systems. • Respond to messages and requests in • Gain informed consent from youth and a tjmely manner, follow through with family to share informatjon. commitments, and be friendly, interested, • Communicate and share informatjon with atuentjve, and open to suggestjons stafg in other systems involved with the (Darlington & Feeney, 2008; Kapp et al., same youth and families. 2013). • Decide how to share responsibilitjes and goals for youth based on the idea that 3
What Are the Skills Needed for Collaboration and Teamwork? Efgectjve collaboratjon can happen when • Communicatjon: Clearly sharing important service providers create a clear collectjve goal informatjon and exchanging and discussing and commit to the implementatjon of plans. ideas Demonstratjng patjence, understanding, • Autonomy: Being able to work responsiveness, and good humor will show independently commitment to successful outcomes (Lee et • Coordinatjon: Coordinatjng group tasks al., 2012). Additjonally, we encourage service and assignments providers to practjce the following actjvitjes: • Leadership skills: These include • Cooperatjon: Acknowledging and recognizing group dynamics and respectjng respectjng other opinions while being the difgerent cultures of members of willing to examine and change your difgerent groups, such as psychologists, personal beliefs and perspectjves psychiatrists, social workers, and peer • Responsibility: Acceptjng and sharing support providers responsibilitjes when partjcipatjng in group Finally, refmectjng on the process of working decision-making and planning together and sharing feedback can strengthen collaboratjve relatjonships and efgectjveness (Bronstein, 2003). “Some skills are needed for effective collaboration with other service providers; the first thing is patience. We have to be patient when we’re doing this kind of collaboration work. We also have to be very thoughtful about it.” – Don Schweitzer, Associate Professor, Pacific University 4
“We need to understand, just as we would working with a young person, what are these people’s needs and what are their concerns and what are their fears, and making sure we understand that as we are working and trying to build a system of care together.” – Don Schweitzer, Associate Professor, Pacific University Engaging Young People in Collaboration To encourage youth and young adults to that young people’s cultural preferences engage in their own cross-system service will be addressed; planning, providers can support young people • coaching youth in skills to advocate on to navigate systems by: their own behalf in reaching out to new providers, teachers, or employers, and • assistjng youth to identjfy their goals across when preparing for team-based goal life domains and to fjnd welcoming settjngs settjng; that will provide opportunitjes to achieve those goals; • accompanying youth (if they wish) to visit new agencies and meet new providers; and • developing relatjonships with providers in agencies you refer youth to, so you • promotjng an organizatjonal culture where understand each other’s roles and youth partjcipatjon is valued and a safe approaches and you know that youth will environment is provided where youth have be treated with respect; meaningful engagement and partjcipatjon in decisions (Walker et al., 2007; Youth • cultjvatjng relatjonships with culturally- M.O.V.E. Natjonal, 2014). specifjc agencies so that you are confjdent 5
Moving from Youth Advocacy to System Level Collaboration We recommend that agencies and mutual support and reduces the power organizatjons develop a contjnuum of imbalance between youth and service providers. empowerment so that as young people progress in their recovery and gain confjdence • When invitjng a young person to engage and skills in advocacy from individual-level to in planning and/or decision making, system-level, they can be actjve partjcipants consider the level of youth partjcipatjon in making systems more responsive to young you and your organizatjon will encourage people’s needs (Jennings et al., 2006). and achieve realistjcally. We support Youth M.O.V.E. Natjonal and its state chapters’ • If you are engaging youth and young adults efgorts to promote meaningful involvement in system level collaboratjon, it’s important of young adults in developing policies and to pay them for their tjme. aligning supports for youth with mental • Having at least two youth advocates at the health diffjcultjes. table in collaboratjve planning allows for “If I could say one thing to service providers, and it’s a really simple thing that they can do to radically change the effectiveness of their overall system, is to bring young adults and near peers (people who have just gone through their system), bring them onto the decision-making Boards.” – Martin Rafferty, Executive Director, Youth M.O.V .E. Oregon 6
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