Grant would target ‘juvenile mental health crisis’ in county

Ozaukee County officials are hoping a $100,000 state grant will help families who are “exhausted” managing children who are at risk of entering or have already entered child protection service programs or the youth justice system.

“Ozaukee County is seeing more families presenting to the youth justice program at a point where the family is already exhausted and asking for their child to be placed,” Health and Human Services Director Liza Drake told the Health and Human Services Committee last week.

“We are seeing them enter the child protection and youth justice systems because law enforcement and community providers are unsure how further to assist the family.”

The grant would be used to train staff members to implement a “Functional Family Therapy - Child Welfare” program, “an evidence-based intensive therapeutic model for families that have numerous risk factors,” Drake said.

The program works with families of children from birth to 18 years who are involved or at risk of involvement in the child welfare system.

According to a document provided to the committee by Drake,  the program “often works with families who are reluctant to engage with services, experience mental health concerns, abuse or neglect issues, and have a history of family violence, substance abuse or engagement with the criminal justice system.”

Drake said her department would use the grant to focus on “intensive in-home therapy.”

The grant from the state Department of Children and Families would be for one year, with the possibility of it being renewed for two more years, she said.

The initial goal of the program is to build “infrastructure that supports therapists and/or case managers to take maximum advantage” of the training and to gather data, she said in the memo.

The two subsequent phases, if funded, would aim to train an on-site supervisor, provide ongoing training and expand the program, Drake said.

According to a handout provided to the committee, the FFT-CW program lasts three to six months, is home based and focuses on “motivating for change, changing problem behavior and embedding change.” 

Therapists meet with families and assess family members relationally and with a range of individual and family assessments, “so they can better match families to necessary behavior changes to address risk, needs, safety, neglect and referral issues,” the document said.

In 2022, the most recent figures available, Ozaukee County had a youth population of 9,111 and had 82 youth referrals, for a youth justice referral “rate” of 8 per 1,000, according to the state Department of Children and Families annual report.

Anecdotally, however, officials say the problem has worsened.

Ozaukee County prosecutor Ben Lindsay, who is running unopposed in the November election to succeed Adam Gerol as district attorney, said his office is seeing a “juvenile mental health crisis,” especially among teenage boys, often undiagnosed, that is fueling youth justice referrals.

“I believe it was exacerbated to some degree by the decisions made (during the pandemic) to shut down schools,” he said.

Lindsay, who is also the department’s juvenile justice prosecutor, said it’s obvious many of the juveniles he deals with have behavioral problems but they are undiagnosed and not dealt with.

“We have behavioral issues but they’re telling us there’s nothing to treat. I don’t see that ending anytime soon,” he said.