Lasting support for youth with complex needs

We help families caring for youth with significant emotional and behavioral health needs. Our goal is to find youth the support they need long-term – and for youth to thrive in healthy, loving, and stable homes.

About the youth and families we serve

Choices is an agency partner for the Indiana Children’s Mental Health Initiative (CMHI) and its sister program, Children’s Mental Health Wraparound (CMHW).

Most of the youth and families Choices partners with are engaged with multiple systems. Examples include the Indiana Department of Child Services, juvenile justice, education, mental health, foster care, and residential treatment centers.

Three kids playing a board game on the floor in front of a window.

We help youth who need services related to:

Disabilities, including autism
Trauma
Substance use
Mental health disorders

With access to appropriate services, youth can improve life skills like problem-solving, developing coping strategies, and connecting with their community. Choices also links families with training, family therapy, case management, and other services as needed.

What is Wraparound?

Through a process called Wraparound, Choices connects youth and families to resources and services within their own communities.

Wraparound is strengths-based and a team partnership that helps youth and families improve their lives. Youth and their families are in the driver’s seat and lead decision-making.

Click through the slideshow below to see how Wraparound works.

How Wraparound works

Choices assigns a wraparound facilitator to each youth. The wraparound facilitator uses their social services expertise and organizational skills to support the youth and family through each phase of Wraparound.

The wraparound facilitator helps the youth document their family story, which includes their unique culture, strengths, and vision for the future.

Building a supportive team

From there, the youth and family work with the wraparound facilitator to build a Child and Family Team. The team includes supportive friends or family members as well as key service providers and agency representatives.

Choices helps the youth and family choose from a diverse community partner and service provider network. We do our best to help families choose providers that fit their needs and preferences. A family can also change a provider if needed.

Planning for the long-term

The team works together to create a plan of care, and then they carry out the plan.

The wraparound facilitator and the rest of the team connect the youth and family with community support, so they can transition out of the formal Wraparound process and succeed long-term.

Our impact

The Choices CMHI program improves children’s lives.

87%

of children who started in a home stayed there

90%

did not experience a critical incident

89%

improved life functioning

Source: Choices CMHI data from fiscal year 2019

Benefits for families include:

Being heard as a family and leading the planning process
Better family harmony
Improved life and social skills
Stronger community support
Safer behavior at home, school, and elsewhere

Eligibility

To submit a wraparound referral, anyone may:

Call 2-1-1 and request to submit a referral for wraparound OR
Use the online portal to submit a referral for wraparound: https://incmhwportal.fssa.in.gov/

To learn more about the Children’s Mental Health Wraparound Program, visit their webpage: https://www.in.gov/medicaid/members/home-and-community-based-services/child-mental-health-wraparound-program/.

To learn more about the Children’s Mental Health Initiative Program, visit their webpage: https://www.in.gov/dcs/childrens-mental-health-initiative/.

Submit a Referral for Wraparound Visit the Indiana DCS CMHW page Download the CMHW checklist for parents Visit the Indiana DCS CMHI page