LEWISTON – Children with serious emotional disturbances and their families often face a bewildering maze of services available through schools, communities, health care providers, counseling agencies and law enforcement. Getting connected with the right services at the right time and learning how they can work together can be one of their toughest challenges.

Beginning in 2006, Tri-County Mental Health Services will lead the way in creating a more coordinated system, improving early identification and providing the most effective treatment for the children and their families. Family and youth will have a central role in the development and implementation of the project.

Funded with a $9 million grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Tri-County and its partner, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, will build an integrated system of care.

The project, “A Trauma-Informed System of Care for Children with Serious Emotional Disturbances in Maine,” will service the areas of Androscoggin, Franklin, Oxford and northern Cumberland counties over the next six years and serve as a model for the state and nation.

The project will focus on ensuring that families find “no wrong door” to treatment services and that barriers to care are removed. There will be special emphasis on more effectively addressing the needs of vulnerable and high risk groups and young people who have experienced trauma.

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