Students face myriad social, emotional, and behavioral challenges that undermine academic achievement. Children’s needs for mental health care are largely unmet; between 14 to 20% of children and adolescents (aged 8-15) experience a mental, emotional, or behavioral disorder each year but only about half of these children receive treatment. The Multi-Tiered System of Supports for […]
Innovative Interventions
Mobile Health Units for Opioid Use Disorder Treatment
The Colorado Department of Human Services, Office of Behavioral Health (OBH) received a federal State Opioid Response grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to help increase access to treatment for opioid use disorder. OBH partnered with the state’s substance use disorder Managed Service Organizations (MSOs) to manage the mobile health […]
Albuquerque Public Schools’ Collaborative Approach Helps Juvenile Justice Involved Youth
To stem the steady flow of students from schools to juvenile detention, the Albuquerque (New Mexico) Public Schools SS/HS Initiative created a Juvenile Justice Action Team to develop a strategic plan for enhancing inter-agency collaboration. The plan was steamed through the 3 Bold Steps intervention. The plan comprised numerous action steps, for example: Components of […]
The Rural Telemental Health (RTMH) Program in Oregon
Since 2009, the Rural Telemental Health (RTMH) program has been improving access to mental healthcare for rural veterans in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. The RTMH program, stationed at the Portland VA Medical Center, was started with funding from the VHA Office of Rural Health. Instead of needing to drive long distances to a Veterans Administration (VA) facility, […]
Building Life Skills, Connectedness, and Resilience in Youth
Many youth in the juvenile justice system face very difficult life circumstances, such as poverty, unstable households, mental health issues, disabilities, and low educational achievement. Just as disheartening, these incarcerated youth also have higher rates of suicidal thoughts and behaviors than their peers. Several years ago, Native Americans for Community Action, Inc. (NACA) in northern […]
Two-Generation Approach in Services in Colorado
The Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS) uses a two‐generation approach to guide all of the services. The two-gen approach encourages CDHS programs to serve children and their caregivers together, to harness the family’s full potential, to put the entire family on a path to permanent economic security, and health. When programs and policies are […]