Rockingham County Youth Services (RCYS) is a local county government agency in Rockingham County, NC that provides counseling and other community alternatives for school-aged youth and their families. RCYS began in Rockingham County in 1979 as a program for troubled youth. Since then, the agency has evolved to provide programs that include counseling for children and adolescents, parenting classes, as well as programs ranging from teen court to substance abuse prevention. The evolution of the agency continues as Tara Muchini, Director of Rockingham County Youth Services, explains, “In recent years, our agency has become more trauma-informed, and we have expanded our services to include the trauma focused treatments such as EMDR and sand tray therapy.” In 2020, RCYS became the first and only non-Medicaid provider in the state of North Carolina to provide Trauma Intensive Comprehensive Clinical Assessments (TiCCAs) through their selection to participate in the Standardized Assessment Protocol process. Tara advises that “Being a part of the Standardized Assessment Protocol (SAP) project has been a natural partnership for Youth Services as we are a division of the Rockingham County Department of Health and Human Services, and we collaborate with DSS on a regular basis.”
Tara Muchini and the agency’s TiCCA clinician, Audrey D’antuono, LCMHC, are dedicated to serving the children and families in Rockingham County who need mental and behavioral health services. Audrey has been working in the substance abuse and mental health field for 20 years in both the private sector and county government. Most recently, Audrey became “gold-starred” in conducting TiCCAs, and she is the first and only clinician at RCYS to earn this well-deserved distinction. RCYS is the first local Department of Health and Human Services clinical team to become “gold-starred” in conducting the TiCCA. The gold-starring process requires clinicians to receive clinical coaching while administering their first TiCCAs, with the clinical coaches giving a specific grade on each assessment being conducted. Once clinicians receive the appropriate grade on a certain number of TiCCAs, they are “gold-starred” and proceed to complete TiCCAs with oversight from their Clinical Team Leader rather than Benchmarks’ Clinical Coach. This fidelity measure serves to ensure that all clinicians providing TiCCAs are producing consistent quality assessments with holistic recommendations. Tara Muchini shared that “Conducting TiCCAs is new for our agency, and I am proud of Ms. D’antuono for being our first clinician to become proficient in this process. We are pleased to be able to provide this service to our county.” Audrey and Tara work diligently to ensure that they are producing quality assessments and assisting in linking Rockingham County foster care youth to the appropriate services. Tara also shared that “Adding the TiCCAs to our county's continuum of services for children in foster care is a huge step toward ensuring that each child receives the services they need. We are proud to be a part of this project. “
When asked about RCYS providing TiCCA assessments for Rockingham County DHHS, Felissa Ferrell, Director for Rockingham County Health and Human Services, stated, "Rockingham County is very fortunate to have such a wonderful program as Rockingham County Youth Services, which provides a variety of services to children and their families. When we first explored this pilot with Benchmarks, both Ms. Muchini and Ms. D'antuono were very excited to begin the training and provide these services to the children in foster care. Our community is becoming more trauma-aware and trauma-responsive, which is one of the steps we are taking to positively impact the children in foster care and improve long term outcomes." It has been an exciting journey so far for RCYS’ participation in the Standardized Assessment Protocol, and we look forward to seeing how the agency continues to grow through this process!
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