How We Help Montgomery County’s Children

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> Local Access Mechanism

Some Montgomery County children and youth face many, difficult issues-often a combination of medical, psychological, physical and social problems.

As the needs of a child or teen become more complex, navigating the many programs and services available to help can become quite difficult-even for professionals who are working with the families involved.

The Local Access Mechanism – (301) 354-4905 – is a centralized location where professionals and families of referred children and teens can get:

  • Information
  • Referrals
  • Temporary care coordination
  • Education/awareness

Local Access Mechanism (LAM) Fast Facts

What kinds of calls does the Local Access Mechanism (LAM) receive?

These examples are from one week:

  • A residential treatment center outside of the county says a patient will be returned home to a Montgomery County parent after a year away. What support can the family receive for the transition back here?
  • A special education school reports that a 15-year-old with a mental health diagnosis has become pregnant, is truant and has stopped taking medications. What can be done to help the family?
  • A 9-year-old’s serious behavioral and emotional challenges have become difficult to manage in the home and school. Mom is single and in desperate need of support. Where can they turn?

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How do I know if the LAM can help?

The LAM can help if your child is truant, out of control, has serious mental health and substance abuse needs, engages in risky behaviors and is at risk of an out-of-home placement. A Referral Guide and Checklist helps professionals determine whether LAM can provide assistance to individuals in their care.

How do I seek assistance from the LAM?

Use The Children with Intensive Needs Referral form, which is a secure way of registering your request for assistance. A LAM representative will be in touch with you within 48 hours.

As a parent with a child who has multiple needs, how would I seek your help?

You can call us at (301) 354-4905, or email us. All information is kept strictly confidential.

When you receive an inquiry, what happens?

We ask a series of screening questions to see how we can provide help. Part of the screening is identifying a child’s strengths, as well as his/her areas of need. Once we have identified the needs, we can assist in directing you to the right source for help.

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What kinds of information do you provide?

The LAM office can:

    • Recommend appropriate organization(s) for services
    • Provide contact information for those organizations and link the caller to that organization.
    • Explain how a particular service system works
    • Give direction about how to use infoMONTGOMERY for future information
    • Make a referral to the Local Coordinating Council (LCC)

How do referrals work through LAM?

Where appropriate, a referral is made to:

  • A variety of community services and agencies and/or
  • The Local Coordinating Council (LCC) for consideration to receive Wraparound services, which are specifically for Children with Intensive Needs (CWIN) families. Eligibility criteria must be met.
  • Federation of Families to receive Systems/Family Navigation services

    • System Navigation is for Children with Intensive Needs (CWIN) families to get information, peer support (individual and group), information to navigate various systems and advocacy to empower them to address their own needs.
    • Referred CWIN families must have an assessed level of need that may not be intense enough for wraparound services, or if intense, the family’s circumstances do not qualify them for wraparound services.

What does “temporary care coordination” mean?

The LAM office assists families who face barriers in accessing needed services to which they are directed. These families may require the intervention of a clinician and/or a neutral stakeholder to help access the appropriate array of services. Assistance may involve helping an individual explain their situation in an “agency’s language” or to clarify communication between the family and service providers. It may also involve linking the family to needed services.

How is “education/awareness” offered by LAM?

The LAM serves to educate and increase awareness among various child-serving providers about easily accessible resources available to them within their own system(s) and also the community at large.

Telephone number for Children with Intensive Needs : 301-610-0147

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