A Calling to Help Young People: David Vaughan, LCSW
David Vaughan had just moved to the United States from his native England when he took a job as a licensed clinical social worker at the Institute of Living in the early 1990s.
It would not take long for him to recognize a glaring need within the local behavioral health services community.
“I kept seeing young people – late teens, early 20s – having these early onset signs of depression or psychosis and severe mental illness, but there was no infrastructure in place to take care of them,” said Vaughan, an affable but fiercely dedicated advocate for those young people who sometimes find themselves on the margins of society. “At the time, we just had to stabilize them as best we could and refer them to specialists outside of our system. You could just see they were not going to follow up and were going to fall through the cracks.”
In the early 1990s, the idea of establishing a special psychiatric program for young adults was extremely uncommon, if not unheard of. Yet Vaughan began pressing his colleagues and the leadership within IOL to see if something could be done for the young people he routinely saw showing signs of mental illness – substance abuse, isolation, hallucinations and other symptoms of psychosis.
David Vaughan, program manager for the Young Adult Services Program at the Institute of Living
Vaughan’s idea took hold within the IOL, and by 2004 he was treating young adults between the ages of 17-26 as part of the Young Adult Services (YAS) Program – one of the first of its kind in the country. His pioneering vision has since expanded to include numerous specialized programs for young adults, including a comprehensive outreach program designed to meet the full range of needs for young people struggling not only to overcome their illnesses but embark on independent lives for themselves.
Other innovations include a program for young people coming to terms with their sexual identity, known as The Right Track/Specialty Track for LGBTQ youth, as well as customized treatment plans for each young adult’s clinical and psychiatric needs.
The YAS Program has proven to be a great success within national psychiatric circles, earning the first-ever National Program of the Year Award from the national Association for Ambulatory Behavioral Health. But it has proven to be an even greater success with young adults who have received care from its innovative range of services. Since the program’s inception, patients have experienced an estimated 70 percent recovery rate after going through the range of treatment. Despite suffering from extreme mental health disorders such as schizophrenia, many of the program’s patients have gone on to complete college and enter professions.
Lawrence Haber, PhD, who supervises the YAS Program, said Vaughan’s persistent advocacy for young people, combined with his infectious positive energy and humor, have been the driving force behind the program’s success.
“David believes in this program and he believes in the young people who come here for help, and the young people can see that,” Haber said. “That gives them the hope and confidence they need.”