ChristieCare receives $250,000 dollar grant from Meyer Memorial Trust
ChristieCare, a non-profit agency providing mental health solutions for children, young adults, and families has been awarded $250,000 in grant funding by the Meyer Memorial Trust, Oregon’s largest private foundation. ChristieCare, Oregon’s oldest non-profit, now entering its 151st year of serving Oregon’s youth, will use this investment to implement a national best practice initiative. The national best practice model will produce increased cost-efficiency as well as quality services and outcomes for the state’s youth. “The Meyer Memorial Trust recognizes that these times require nonprofits to explore new ways of doing business. ChristieCare is taking steps to get ahead of the current financial challenges facing mental health providers by transitioning to a model that it anticipates will produce measurable results and serve more vulnerable youth at a lower cost to the public,” said Doug Stamm, Meyer Memorial Trust Executive Director.
ChristieCare’s proposed improvements will achieve a significant expansion in provided services. Areas of growth will include Psychiatric Residential Treatment Services (PRTS) and Intensive Clinical Treatment Service. Long term expansion goals include creation of a more comprehensive model of care in which fewer children will require intensive psychiatric services and a larger percentage of children with high level needs will receive treatment in their homes and communities. Youth Villages, a non-profit based in Memphis, Tennessee, and a fellow member of the American Re-Ed Association, will be providing staff training and management consulting through the operational transition.
ChristieCare currently provides an array of mental health services: including residential treatment programs on their Marylhurst campus, the Cedar Bough program which provides culturally specific treatment to Native American youth and serves the 9 federally recognized tribes, and Mosaic, the first program in Oregon to focus on the mental health needs of transition-age youth (ages 17-24).
ChristieCare Board Chair, Elaine Franklin said the Board is honored by Meyer Memorial Trust’s investment, “ChristieCare has provided the highest quality care to Oregon children and their families for over 150 years. This grant will help us transform that care into a nationally recognized best practice model giving help to many more of Oregon’s children and adolescents and greatly improving our success rate”.