Child, Adolescent and Family Branch
Background
The Child, Adolescent and Family Branch of the Federal
Center for Mental Health Services promotes and ensures that the mental health
needs of children and their families are met through home and community-based
systems of care.
Systems of care are developed on the premise that the
mental health needs of children, adolescents, and their families can best be
met within their home, school, and community environments. The federal programs
that are administered by the Branch are developed around the principles of
cultural competence, child-centered, family-driven services that revolve around
the strengths of the child or adolescent being served.
At the heart of system of care programs is interagency collaboration at
the community level.
Areas of Activity
Comprehensive Community Mental Health
Services Program for Children and Their Families
The Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services
Program for Children and Their Families (Children’s Services Program) provides
grants and cooperative agreements to States, communities, territories, Indian
tribes, and tribal organizations to improve and expand their systems of care to
meet the needs of an estimated 4.5–6.3 million children with serious emotional
disturbances and their families. The program was first authorized in fiscal
year 1992 by sections 561-565 of the Public Health Service Act, as amended. The
grant program has funded a total of 92 grantees across the country. There are
currently 61 active system of care communities.
The Children’s Services Program promotes the
development of service delivery systems through a system of care approach. This
model is based on a philosophy that includes four elements: 1) the mental
health service systems are driven by the needs and preferences of the child and
family addressed through a strength-based approach; 2) the focus and management
of services occur within a multi-agency collaborative environment and are
grounded in a strong community base; 3) the services offered, the agencies
participating, and the programs generated are responsive to the cultural
context and characteristics of the populations served; and 4) families are
partners in planning and implementing the system of care. Communities are given
flexibility in how they organize their system of care approach to meet the
needs of their children and families.
System of care communities collaborate with a national
multi-site evaluation, are provided training and technical assistance on
systems of care principles and processes, and develop social marketing/public
education outreach programs.
System of care communities participate in a 2- to 3-day
evaluation community visit every 18 months to assess and monitor the overall
progress of systems of care development in their community. Additionally, a
Federal review team (including the Federal Project Officer) conducts a
community site visit, usually in years two and four of the cooperative
agreement, to gauge progress toward achieving the goals as set forth in the
application.
Statewide Family Networks
Forty-two statewide Family Network grantees provide
information, referral, and support to families of children and youth with or at
risk of experiencing serious emotional disturbances. These grantees also
participate in the development of policies, programs, and quality assurance
activities related to the mental health of children and adolescents with
serious emotional disturbances and their families. This grant program is
designed to increase the capacity of statewide family network grantees and to
strengthen coalitions among family members, policymakers, and service
providers. The essence of knowledge application is achieving change with the
recognition that family members are the best and most effective change agents.
Technical assistance is provided to the grantees through the United Advocates
for Children of California.
Child and Adolescent Mental Health
and Substance Abuse State Infrastructure Grants (CA-SIG)
The Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Substance
Abuse State Infrastructure Grants (CA-SIG) strengthen the capacity of States,
territories, and Native American tribal governments to develop and sustain
substance abuse and mental health services including early intervention,
treatment, and/or continuing services and supports at the local level of
children, adolescents and youth in transition (ages 0-24), who have a serious
emotional disturbance, substance abuse disorder, and/or co-occurring disorders,
and their families. Applicants are expected to use grant funds to build the
infrastructure necessary to promote, support, and sustain local service and
treatment intervention capabilities for the target population across service
delivery systems. The program is
intended to provide sufficient flexibility and scope to enable States to
determine whether they will focus on the entire target population or
demographic/geographic subsets of the population.
Circles of Care
In collaboration with the Indian Health Service and the
National Institute of Mental Health, seven 3-year grants were awarded in 2001
to plan, design, and assess the feasibility of implementing a culturally
appropriate mental health service model for American Indian/Alaska Native
children with serious emotional disturbances and their families. This program
is intended to support tribes and urban Indian organizations in developing
service delivery models that match the treatment methods selected by American
Indians/Alaska Natives for their own children. The program is also intended to
support the development of measures and processes that will be useful to tribal
and urban Indian organizations in evaluating their service models.
Partnerships for Youth Transition
The transition from adolescence to
adulthood is difficult for many young people. Youth with serious emotional
disturbances and serious mental illnesses are particularly at high risk during
the transition to adulthood. These young people have the highest dropout rate
among all youth with a disability, have more confrontations with the juvenile
justice system, often fail to live independently—resulting in homelessness—and
are more prone to unplanned pregnancy than youth in other disability groups.
Often, system-generated plans for
transition services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act are
weak and not followed effectively, or children’s services are often withdrawn
abruptly, based on age, not the need for services. In addition, the criteria
for service eligibility are inconsistent, and youth may not be eligible for
services and supports in another location. Adequate assessment is frequently
not conducted.
Five 4-year cooperative agreements
were awarded in 2003 to plan, design, and implement youth transition programs
for children with serious emotional disturbances and their families.
The Office of Special Education,
U.S. Department of Education is a contributor to this program. Technical
assistance is provided by the University of South Florida, Department of Child
and Family Studies through a grant from the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities
Initiative, Annie E. Casey Foundation.