Creating healing pathways for children with behavioral health needs

The Creating Healing Pathways for Children with Behavioral Health Needs report has been developed by the Youth with Unmet Complex Care Needs Workgroup. The workgroup consisted of youth and parents with lived experience and staff with expertise in policy, research, judiciary, and federal and state policies. Over eight months, this workgroup gathered inputs from individuals with lived experience, representatives from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Administration for Children and Families, health care advocacy organizations, health insurance companies, ombudsmen, clinical social workers, and child welfare staff across jurisdictions. It also conducted an extensive review of U.S. and international literature on the topic and developed a survey to gather information on the challenges and best practices as it relates to supporting youth with complex needs. To ensure that the key considerations were relevant to child welfare leaders and partners, feedback was gathered through peer learning exchanges with jurisdictions and discussions with youth and caregivers. Eight considerations are discussed in the report:

1. Actively engage children, parents and families
2. Use data to identify and assess needs and inform solutions
3. Build coordinated cross-system approaches
4. Create culturally responsive, healing-centered behavioral health support
5. Invest in workforce capacity building and training
6. Strengthen community pathways and concrete support for prevention
7. Increase access to effective legal support and advocacy
8. Prioritize kin placement and expand support for kin

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