In November, Integral Care received a $143,500 grant from the Meadows Foundation to renew the Healthy Transitions Program, a collaboration between Integral Care and The University of Texas at Austin that supports transition-age youth. Funding will allow Integral Care to hire four part-time, near-age peer support specialists who will serve as transition navigators for youth who are transitioning from Child and Family Services to Adult Behavioral Health services or young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 who are new to mental health services and engaging with Adult Behavioral Health services.

By connecting each youth with one of our trained, near-age peer support specialists, we anticipate that we will increase the number of individuals who attend their intake appointment with Adult Behavioral Health services and improve our retention rate for youth remaining in Adult Behavioral Health services.

As in Year One of the project, Integral Care will engage experts in the University of Texas at Austin Steve Hicks School of Social Work to train the young adult peer support providers in the developmental needs of transition-age youth, effective engagement skills, and fidelity to the young adult peer model.