AMP: Achieve My Plan

Personnel Janet Walker, Ph.D., Principal Investigator Laurie Powers, Ph.D., Principal Investigator Elizabeth Thorne, Project Manager Jonathan Melvin, Student Research Assistant Celeste Siebel, Student Research Assistant
	NEW - Youth Participation in Planning: Introductory Video

Introduction

Increasingly, both mental health policy and consumer/family advocates describe individualized planning as a necessary route to community integration and recovery, as well as other positive outcomes for children and youth with emotional or behavioral disorders and their families. There is also growing research evidence that supports the efficacy of individualized planning undertaken through youth-family-provider partnerships. Unfortunately, it appears that individualized planning that includes families and youth often falls far short of the vision of full partnership. However, there is good reason to believe that the level of partnership in planning can be increased when certain types of key practices are used during preparation for planning and during the planning process itself.

Goals & Objectives

The central goal of this project is to develop and evaluate a cost-effective intervention (the Partnerships in Planning or PiP intervention) to increase partnership that can be used across a variety of individualized planning contexts, including system of care, IEP, and transition from out-of-community placements. A second goal is to develop or adapt a series of measures to tap key aspects and outcomes of partnership in planning. Finally, an overall goal of the project is to demonstrate the feasibility and practicality of building partnerships in planning, thereby helping to reduce the stigma that currently prevents youth and their families from realizing the benefits of individualized planning. This research builds on the Center's ongoing research and national leadership in the areas of individualized planning; participation, empowerment, and self-determination.

Major Activities

Phase 1
In this phase of the project, we will adapt a series of measures for use in assessing key aspects related to youth and family partnership in individualized planning. The Youth Empowerment Scale (YES) and the Youth Partnership in Planning scale (YPiP) will be adapted from scales used to measure similar constructs with adult family members of children with mental health challenges. The Beliefs about Youth Partnership in Planning (BYPP) measure will be adapted from two of the subscales from the Measure of Beliefs about Participation in Family-Centered Services. This measure is intended to capture respondent's perceptions about the feasibility and utility of partnering with youth in individualized planning. Finally, we will be developing and pilot testing a semi-structured interview, the Contributions to Planning Interview (CPI). The CPI interview will go through an individualized plan goal by goal to elicit ratings of the extent to which the interviewees feel they had a role in creating that goal, the extent to which they endorse the goal, and the extent to which the goal is important or meaningful to them.

Phase 2
In this phase, we will develop and pilot test the Participation in Planning ( PiP ) intervention. For the intervention, we will particularly focus on increasing the use of a small number of specific, concrete practices that help build partnership and increase participation through a) preparing meeting participants (including youth and families participating in individualized planning) before meetings and b) increasing the impact of relatively disempowered perspectives (particularly family and youth perspectives) during group discussions and decision making. The goal is to select for the intervention a small number of potentially powerful and specific key practices that can be recognized by all participants when the practices occur. Based on the practices included in the intervention modules, we will develop a PIP process fidelity tool.

Tools/Products

The Youth Self-Efficacy / Empowerment Scale - Mental Health (YSES-MH) and Youth Participation in Planning Scale (YPP)

Publications and Presentations

Publications

Best Practices for Increasing Meaningful Youth Participation in Collaborative Team Planning

Is Your Organization Supporting Meaningful Youth Participation in Collaborative Team Planning? A Self-Assessment Quiz

Involving Youth in Planning for Their Education, Treatment, and Services: Research Tells Us We Should Be Doing Better

Presentations

Increasing Youth Involvement in Systems of Care: Tools and Strategies. Presented at the Georgetown University Institutes: Developing Local Systems of Care for Children and Adolescents with Mental Health Needs and Their Families, July 20, 2008, Nashville, TN.

New Measures for Youth Empowerment and Youth Participation in Planning. Presented at The 21st Annual Research Conference: A System of Care for Children's Mental Health: Expanding the Research Base, February 24, 2008, Tampa, FL.

AMP (Achieve My Plan): An Intervention to Increase Youth Empowerment and Participation in Planning. Presented at Building on Family Strengths Conference, May 31, 2007, Portland, OR.

New Measures to Assess Youth Empowerment and Youth Participation in Treatment Planning. Presented at Building on Family Strengths Conference, May 31, 2007, Portland, OR.

Latest Updates

Project 3 has completed data collection for the development of measures of youth empowerment and youth participation in planning. Additionally, we are beginning pilot testing of the intervention to increase youth participation in individualized planning. Over the past year, we have benefited from the knowledge, experience, and input provided by our advisory committee, which includes youth, family, and providers. Our advisors have helped us create and refine many of the intervention elements that we will be pilot testing.

Youth Participation in Planning Feasibility Survey: Information for Survey Participants
We are conducting a research study that is examining perceptions of feasibility and utility of youth participation in planning. In collaboration with Columbia River Wraparound System of Care (SOC), we are conducting this study to assess beliefs about the feasibility and utility of youth participation in planning at SOC. We will use this information to develop better knowledge about the kinds of resources that are necessary to help agencies be more successful in ensuring higher levels of youth participation in planning. If you have been invited to participate in the study and would like more information, please click on the above link.