Author: Brian Dunnigan

In Memoriam: Sheila A. Pires

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My dear colleagues,

It is with a heavy heart that I share with you that Sheila A. Pires passed away peacefully yesterday after a 12-year battle with cancer. She was at home in Brooklyn, New York with her wife and loving partner of 27 years, Kathy Lazear. She was surrounded by her immediate family and close friends during the last weeks of her life.

Sheila has been a part of my life for the past 24 years. I was incredibly fortunate to call her a mentor, advisor, confidant, and dear friend. She has impacted the children’s services world so profoundly and, I am confident, for generations to come. Sheila, as someone who never shied away from operationalizing her values, knew that our field needed a roadmap for conceptualizing and designing quality public systems. Sheila surrounded herself with leaders in the field and, putting pen to paper, wrote Building Systems of Care: A Primer (Primer). Over the last 22 years she has used that roadmap to teach and support state and community leaders to create rational and sustainable systems that support children and their families. To quote Sheila herself, from this seminal 2002 publication, “This author has learned much from leaders in the family movement at both national and local levels… To work in this arena over time, first directly as a system administrator and then as a technical assistance provider to states and communities, has been an endless process of discovery and growth.” May we all continue this same journey in her name.

For those of you who didn’t know Sheila personally, she was brilliant, witty, and caring. She used her thoughtful insights to get straight to the heart of an issue, identify levers for change, and articulate what should happen next. She knew which policy and financing strategies had been tried in which states and would take the time to explain who someone should talk to and what the next step should be; it was like she had a rolodex in her head. She was always willing to explain a point or provide a resource and, throughout her career, and even in her final weeks, she continued to invest in people working in this field. She would argue and debate and question, always in service of moving systems forward. I never saw Sheila lose hope that a state or system would eventually do the right thing for kids and families. She made those of us who had the chance to work with her better and is leaving us all with the responsibility of designing and implementing systems that help.

Photo of Sheila-Pires smiling

This is an extraordinarily sad day. What Sheila has and will continue to mean to the field cannot be measured. The loss is incalculable. That loss is not only professional, but deeply personal. Sheila was not only a mentor but also a friend. Her generosity of spirit, sense of humor, and always challenging me to grow will be with me forever.

Kamala Allen, MHS, Senior Vice President, Program & Strategic Planning, Center for Health Care Strategies

After graduating from Boston University in 1971, Sheila taught creative writing at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts and then went to graduate school for English Literature at Georgetown University where she took a job to pay for graduate school as a legislative correspondent for Lester Wolff, a New York Democratic congressman. Sheila would always say that she was honored to be a part of “the feisty NYC Congressional delegation” that included Lester Wolff and Bella Abzug. Sheila was one of the youngest women Congressional Staff Directors and later was appointed Special Assistant to the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare and then to the White House as Senior Staffing Specialist for President Jimmy Carter. Joining President Carter’s mandate to “break the white man’s hold” on jobs and advisory committees in the White House, Sheila specialized in recruiting women, minorities, and people with diverse cultural backgrounds, abilities, and experiences. After leaving the White House when Carter’s presidency ended, Sheila went to Harvard’s Kennedy School for Public Policy and received an MPA. Upon her return to Washington, D.C., Sheila was appointed by Mayor Marion Barry as the Acting Administrator for the D.C. Child/Youth Services Administration and the Children’s Coordinator for the Children’s Mental Health Reorganization Office, where she continued her focus on bringing children and youth home from more restrictive placements.

Sheila was an incredibly important person to me personally and to the entire field of youth and family behavioral health. Her impact has been felt across the country, and countless individuals have received the benefits of her work.

Gary Blau, PhD, Former Chief, Child, Adolescent & Family Branch and Former Senior Advisor for Children, Youth & Families in the Office of the Assistant Secretary, SAMHSA; and Executive Director Emeritus of The Hackett Center for Mental Health

Following her work in the Reorganization Office, Sheila became Deputy Commissioner of Social Services for the District of Columbia. She also was proud to serve for ten years as a Board member for Bell Multicultural High School, a public-private high school serving youth with immigration experience. In 1990, Sheila founded the Human Services Collaborative, a policy and technical assistance group focused on children’s behavioral health. During President George W. Bush’s Administration, she was asked to serve as an advisor to the New Freedom Health Commission and co-authored the Children’s Mental Health Policy Brief, increasing the Nation’s focus on behavioral health needs of children and youth. Sheila also co-chaired President Bill Clinton’s Behavioral Health Care Reform Task Force, which was a major force in getting children’s issues on the table.

Sheila’s passing is a profound loss, both professionally and personally. Her contribution to the field of children’s services has been immeasurable. She has improved the lives of countless young people and families through her work at the federal, state, and local levels. As difficult as it is to lose Sheila as a colleague, it is so much more difficult for me and so many people to lose her as a friend. Our hearts go out to her family and to everyone whose lives she has touched.

Beth Stroul, M.Ed., President, Management & Training Innovations, Member of the Mental Health Working Group of the President’s Task Force on Health Care Reform, & Consultant to the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health

Sheila served as a Senior Advisor to quality collaboratives on improving the use of psychotropic medications for children in foster care and for youth in residential treatment facilities. She was Advisor to the Children’s Bureau for the Family First Prevention Services Act, Advisor to the National Quality Improvement Center on Tailored Services, Placement Stability, and Permanency for LGBTQ2S Children and Youth in Foster Care, Senior Advisor to the Technical Assistance Network for Children’s Behavioral Health at Innovations Institute, and Senior Program Consultant to the Center for Health Care Strategies. Partnering with Innovations Institute at the University of Connecticut and the Center for Health Care Strategies, Sheila worked to customize Medicaid for children in foster care, establish cross-agency financing, and re-direct spending from out-of-home placements to home and community-based services. In addition to releasing a second edition of the Primer, and authoring a Child Welfare version of the Primer, she also led the development of a 17 module on-demand and on-line version of the Primer making her work accessible to all.

Sheila wrote the primer on Systems of Care; I had the privilege of participating in some of her training sessions. She has been an incredible colleague and teacher and could readily translate the complexities of financing into plain language that we all could understand. We will miss her deeply but are comforted with the legacy she has left to the field of children’s mental health.

Larke Huang, PhD, Director of the Office of Behavioral Health Equity, SAMHSA

Throughout her 35-year public policy consulting career, Sheila partnered with almost every state government, relevant federal agency, and national technical assistance and policy research center. The close relationships she formed with individuals during partnerships like these lasted a lifetime. It was not only her work itself, but the way she worked and the way she cared about people, that deeply influenced individuals personally and professionally. Sheila was sought after not only for her subject matter expertise, but her uncanny ability to bring people together. She possessed the intelligence to link divergent or disparate ideas and the insight to bring clarity where there often seemed only chaos.

With the knowledge and support of Sheila and her family, I am honored to announce that we have established the Sheila A. Pires Fund (Fund) at Innovations Institute, University of Connecticut Foundation which will support policy innovation and research for effective systems. Through this Fund, Innovations will develop the Sheila A. Pires Post-Doctoral Fellowship Program to engage and train researchers on policy and financing that supports accessible, equitable, and effective child and family serving systems.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in honor of Sheila to the Sheila A. Pires Fund at Innovations Institute, University of Connecticut Foundation online or by making checks payable to the UConn Foundation, Inc., Attn: Data Services, 2390 Alumni Dr., Unit 3206, Storrs, CT 06269-3206. Please use the check notation line to designate the Sheila A. Pires Fund.

Donations may also be made to Bell Multicultural High School (Columbia Heights Education Campus - Washington | DonorsChoose).

I know that many of you have stories and memories of Sheila, and I encourage you to share them in the weeks, months, and years to come. Feel free to send cards and notes to her family at 100 Jay Street, #18C Brooklyn, NY 11201. They would welcome the memories.

It is up to all of us to make sure her memory and legacy are lasting and a force for good in the world.

Sheila, thank you for holding yourself and others to the highest standards. You embodied systems of care values and principles, and we are forever grateful to have been in this work together with you.

With gratitude,

""

Michelle Zabel, MSS
Executive Director
Innovations Institute
School of Social Work
University of Connecticut

UConn School of Social Work’s Innovations Institute Expands Expertise to Promote the Well-being of Infants and Young Children

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For some children the need for mental health support—and the questions their parents have around social and emotional development—start well before school

Father's Care. Loving Black Dad Feeding His Cute Baby Son From Spoon At Home, Young African American Daddy Giving Healthy Food To His Little Toddler Child While They Relaxing Together In Living Room

Innovations Institute, in the UConn School of Social Work, is welcoming a new team of specialists focused on the behavioral health of parents, infants, and very young children. Research has demonstrated that the positive social emotional development of very young children serves as the critical building blocks for learning and positive mental health. The work of this Parent, Infant, and Early Childhood team centers around the adults who interact with infants and very young children including parents and caregivers, relatives, pediatricians, social workers, childcare workers, preschool educators, and more.

“For some children the need for mental health support—and the questions their parents have around social and emotional development—start well before school,” Innovations Institute Executive Director Michelle Zabel says. “Having the expertise and capacity to build effective public-serving systems to address these needs at the earliest possible time in a child’s life can have a huge impact for some families.”

Innovations Institute works in partnership with state and local governments, provider organizations, and hospitals, as well as with the federal government to build public systems that effectively serve children, youth, and their families. They are currently working in over 40 states across the country. As an interdisciplinary, translational research center, they hold expertise in health and human services systems, crisis response systems, LGBTQ+ populations, policy and financing, systems design and implementation, research and evaluation, and workforce development all to improve supports, systems, services, and outcomes for children, youth, young adults, and families.

With the arrival of seven new faculty and staff, Innovations is expanding their work to address the first years in a child’s life when positive social emotional health can lay a strong foundation for healthy growth and development throughout childhood and into adulthood. A child’s ability to express and regulate their emotions, to navigate peer and adult interactions and develop trusting relationships, to begin to explore and learn are key factors in their initial and enduring success in educational settings through high school. This team will support the State of Connecticut’s Office of Early Childhood in their efforts to evaluate access and quality of early learning opportunities across the state. They will also collaborate with states across the country to support the design and implementation of systems and services that address the social and emotional needs of children in their communities.

“Now is the critical moment for our team to join nationwide efforts to promote the well-being of infants and very young children in their families,” says Associate Research Professor Margo Candelaria, co-director of the team.

Their work is grounded in equity-informed, developmentally appropriate, trauma-informed, and culturally responsive practices ensuring that the stressors that impact the mental health of families including racism, and poverty are carefully considered in programs and services. Data shows that significant number of infants born in the U.S., particularly infants of color, are growing up with risk factors proven to have long-term negative impacts on their development including poverty, parental unemployment, lack of access to services, and inadequate housing. Investments in policies and programs to reduce these risks are needed to support optimal development for young children and their families.

“Both the rise of the mental health crisis among youth in the U.S. and the corresponding burnout among early childhood educators and childcare providers make the expansion of our work critical,” says Assistant Extension Professor Kate Sweeney, co-director of the team.

Led by Candelaria and Sweeney, the team promotes the use of evidence-based practices to support the social and emotional development of infants and very young children as well as their families including the Pyramid Model for Social Emotional Competence and Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation. These models help ensure that those working with infants, very young children, and their parents are well trained in best and innovative practices to promote social emotional skills and address behavioral concerns.

The team has an extensive profile of projects that focus on improving the amount and quality of infant and mental health services across a variety of settings including childcare, pediatrics, among incarcerated parent populations, with substance use and mental health centers, and with agencies serving homeless and housing unstable youth.  Innovation’s Parent, Infant, and Early Childhood team supports evidence-based program implementation, workforce development, and evaluation efforts as critical early childhood investments.

Supporting the Mental Health Crisis Workforce to Address the Needs of the LGBTQ+

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The UConn School of Social Work’s Innovations Institute has launched a new training program for crisis counselors and first responders.

A Pride flag in the foreground, with a mental health professional seated in the distance.

As the nation works to build the systems and services necessary to respond to the U.S. mental health crisis, the workforce within those systems require support and specialized training to effectively address the needs of vulnerable populations and to meet the growing demands for care.

The UConn School of Social Work’s Innovations Institute leads a Center of Excellence for LGBTQ+ Behavioral Health Equity (COE), funded by U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, to provide behavioral health practitioners with vital information to support LGBTQ+ people.

Innovations—experts in instructional design and in behavioral health—has launched a new COE training designed to provide crisis counselors and first responders with in-depth knowledge to address the specific needs of and improve outcomes for LGBTQ+ populations.

In October of 2020, Congress passed the National Suicide Hotline Act, designating 988 as the new nationwide number for suicide prevention and mental health crisis. And in Spring of 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced $35 million in funding opportunities to strengthen and expand community mental health services and suicide prevention efforts.

These groundbreaking efforts paved the way for expanded services and support 24/7—important for LGBTQ+ people—a community that has been markedly impacted by negative mental health outcomes due to stigma, prejudice, and inequitable access to care.

“The current data on LGBTQ+ communities highlight the need for tailored and culturally responsive mental health services, particularly at times of mental health crises. Through trainings like this one we are implementing change strategies to directly address behavioral health disparities in the LGBTQ+ community and improve outcomes,” says COE Principal Investigator Marlene Matarese.

The Trevor Project’s 2023 National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People found that 41% of LGBTQ+ young people between the ages of 13 and 24 seriously considered attempting suicide in the 12 months preceding the survey. Their findings also highlighted that 56% of respondents were not able to access mental health care when they needed it in the preceding months.

Research also found that LGBTQ+  adults are at higher risk to suicide when compared to their straight and cisgender peers, and that older LGBTQ+ adults report high levels of isolation and loneliness, contributing to negative health and life outcomes. Disparate mental health outcomes are compounded for LGBTQ+ people of color who face multiple forms of discrimination.

Designed to improve mental health outcomes for LGBTQ+ people, the new self-paced online training was developed by the COE in partnership with Vibrant Health—administrators of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Titled Introduction to LGBTQ+ Populations with Special Considerations for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline the training addresses disparities; introduces accurate and respectful terminology, mental health considerations, the coming out process; and outlines the ways that 988 crisis counselors can support LGBTQ+ people over call, chat, and text.

Crisis counselors responding to those reaching out through 988 can build their knowledge and skills to address the needs of LGBTQ+ populations, thereby ensuring everyone who reaches out through crisis lifelines feel supported. The course takes approximately 60 minutes to complete and provides 1.0 CECs or a certificate of attendance.

Data Experts at School of Social Work’s National SOGIE Center Take Lead Role in Supporting Justice-Involved LGBTQ+ and Two-Spirit Youth

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The National SOGIE Center, at the School of Social Work’s Innovations Institute, has partnered with The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges in a new U.S. Department of Justice grant to develop a National Resource Center to support Justice-Involved LGBTQ2S+ Youth

people walking with a large rainbow flag

The National Council of Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) received a newly established $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) to establish a National Resource Center to support LGBTQ2S+ youth and their families. The National Center for Youth with Diverse Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Expression (National SOGIE Center), based at the UConn School of Social Work’s Innovations Institute, is partnering with NCJFCJ in the development of this National Resource Center to support essential youth justice reforms and address the needs of underserved populations within youth justice systems across the U.S. The Center will advance positive youth development practices and be a clearinghouse on policies and practices related to justice impacted LGBTQ2S+ youth. They will also support the workforce within youth justice systems by providing comprehensive training and technical assistance.

Building on the Biden Administration’s support for LGBTQI+ rights, OJJDP Administrator Liz Ryan has stated “Our Office and our programs embrace all youth. We honor every young person’s right to live their truth—openly and in safety.” In receiving this newly established grant, NCJFCJ partnered with the National SOGIE Center, and with the Coalition for Juvenile Justice, the Gault Center and the Tribal Law and Policy Institute. The National SOGIE Center, a partnership of multiple organizations, coordinates a national approach to addressing the needs of LGBTQ+ youth involved in public systems and their families.

The National SOGIE Center’s work on this grant is led by the Innovations Institute team of Marlene Matarese, Principal Investigator, and Angela Weeks, Director. Matarese and Weeks will lead the development of content for justice and community stakeholders around best practices when working with LGBTQ2S+ populations to be disseminated through webinars, office hours, tools. Matarese explains The National SOGIE Center’s interest in this project, “We have been developing innovative programs for LGBTQ+ youth in child welfare that serve to create positive outcomes for young people and their families. We are now turning our attention to youth justice systems, using our experience and our understanding of LGBTQ+ populations to ensure best practices, policies, and protocols are utilized, and to support the workforce interacting with young people.”

National consultants on SOGIE data collection, Matarese and Weeks conducted a pivotal study in 2021 with the Division of Children and Families in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, finding that fully 32% of youth in foster care in the Midwest were identifying as LGBTQ+—almost four times the national average of youth ages 13 to 17. This study built on two previous studies in Los Angeles in 2014 and New York in 2020 and highlights a nationwide overrepresentation of LGBTQ+ youth in public systems. Matarese and Weeks have recently launched a learning community with the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors for leaders in youth-serving systems to learn how to collect SOGIE data safely and respectfully to better understand and serve the populations in their care.

Weeks notes, “Our data show a disproportionate number of Black and brown youth who identify as LGBTQ+ within child welfare and behavioral health; this overrepresentation is even greater in the youth justice system. Young people involved in these public systems are often harmed by racism, anti-LGBTQ+ bias, and a lack of trauma-informed care. Across our systems work, we try to address disparities through that lens. Through this new center, we strive to positively impact these young people through the support, training, and resources we provide to the adults who serve them.”

The more likely that child welfare and behavioral health systems can provide affirming support for young people of diverse SOGIE, the less likely they will be to encounter the youth justice system. For those young people who do enter the justice system, the National SOGIE Center are working to train the workforce to address the needs of young people to ensure they receive support toward a brighter

School of Social Work Welcomes Innovations Institute to Improve Child and Family Services Nationwide

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With the addition of Innovations Institute, the School expands UConn’s leadership and contributions nationwide

exterior shot of the school of social work building

The School of Social Work (SSW) in Hartford. Sept. 15, 2022. (Sean Flynn/UConn Photo)

The UConn School of Social Work (SSW) is pleased to announce the arrival of Innovations Institute. A University institute of the SSW, Innovations Institute extends the School’s commitment to social, racial, and economic justice and the improvement of human well-being nationwide.

To fulfill its mission, the UConn SSW has deep and longstanding partnerships with Connecticut state agencies that serve children, youth, and their families, including the Departments of Social Services, of Children and Families, of Mental Health and Addiction Services, and the Office of Early Childhood. Through these robust partnerships, the School provides research, implementation, and evaluation of evidence-based programs and policies that serve children, youth, and families across the state.

With the addition of Innovations Institute, the School expands UConn’s leadership and contributions nationwide. “The Institute Innovations brings together prominent thought leaders in the area of children’s services with expertise in policy, finance, intervention design and installation, along with translational research and evaluation,” says Dean and Zachs Chair Nina Rovinelli Heller. “It also increases our national footprint and strengthens our commitment to academic-public agency partnerships. These objectives are core missions for the SSW, and for the profession, and align with our strategic goals of increasing research, providing life-transformative experiences, and increasing community engagement.”

Grounded in research and implementation science, the work of Innovations Institute furthers the SSW’s commitment to disseminating impactful knowledge through building research-based and transformative child-, youth- and family-serving systems and services, and developing the capacity of the workforce within these systems. It is fully grant funded and brings a $12 million grant portfolio.

“For over 17 years, Innovations Institute has worked to improve the lives of children, youth, young adults, and their families who utilize public system supports,” says Innovations Institute Executive Director Michelle Zabel. “We are committed to elevating their voices to work towards social, racial, economic, and environmental justice. We are thrilled to be joining the School of Social Work and to be engaging in and contributing to UConn’s collaborative environment.”

Formerly affiliated with the University of Maryland, Innovations Institute is an interdisciplinary, translational research center with expertise that dovetails with that of UConn SSW faculty in child welfare, violence, and trauma, LGBTQIA+ issues, mental health and substance misuse, political participation and social justice, and human rights. With the addition of the Innovations Institute, UConn SSW is poised to significantly strengthen its dedication to addressing some of the most challenging human service issues of our time.

Innovations Institute is currently partnering with 42 state and local governments, provider organizations, and hospitals, as well as with the federal government, to improve supports, systems, services, and outcomes for children, youth, and families. Over the course of their history, the Innovations Institute has collaborated with every state and territory as well as many tribal nations.

The School of Social Work is thrilled to welcome the Innovations Institute team to UConn as the School celebrates its 75th anniversary as a top-ranked leader in graduate social work education and research. They will be transitioned to SSW by December 30. To learn more please visit web pages for the School of Social Work and the Innovations Institute.