Overview
The Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) and the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) developed the Youth Empowerment Services (YES). The YES waiver is a Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services Waiver that allows for more flexibility in the funding of intensive community-based services to assist children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbances (SED) to live in the community with their families. Waiver services are provided in combination with services available through the Medicaid State Plan, other federal, state, and local programs the individual may qualify for, and the natural supports that families and communities provide.
Goals of the YES Waiver
- To improve the clinical and functional outcomes of children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbance
- To provide a more complete continuum of community-based services and supports for children and adolescents with SED and their families
- To ensure families have access to parent partners and other flexible non-traditional support services as identified in a family-centered planning process
- To prevent entry and recidivism into the foster care system and relinquishment of parental custody, and
- To reduce out-of-home placements and inpatient psychiatric treatment by all child-serving agencies
Researchers and Implementation Specialists in the Texas Institute for Excellence in Mental Health (TIEMH) provided support to the state and local organizations around the implementation of the waiver.
Types of Support Provided
- Organizational Readiness Development and Planning
- Training in Wraparound Planning
- Wraparound Coaching and Supervisor Support
- Technical Assistance for Network Development
- Monitoring of Fidelity and Outcomes
- Data-driven Quality Improvement Processes
YES Program Evaluation Report 2013
Learn more at the HHSC Youth Empowerment Services website.
Contact us at txinstitute4mh@austin.utexas.edu for more information.
