The Southeast Mental Health System of Care Community Collaborative (SOC) ensures child-centered, family-focused, culturally competent and responsive supports for children with significant mental health issues.

The collaborative, which was established in 1995, serves as a system where families, providers and the community work together to develop and share new children’s mental health resources.

The Connecticut Health Foundation awarded the collaborative $365,000 over a three-year period in 2003 to develop and implement a strategy to increase parental involvement and satisfaction with the system of care.SOC also used the grant to develop a strategic plan that reviewed its mission, beliefs, vision and practices. In 2006, CHF awarded an additional $120,000 grant to identify and address "systems issues."

"Prior to the grants, we were doing things in a much more reactive way versus proactively," said Project Director Cara Westcott.

"The funding from the Connecticut Health Foundation enabled us to set up an infrastructure and process for coming together as a strong collaborative of families and community providers for systems change."

Family input in discharge planning and level of care transitions represents a major focus of the group's work. Because hospital stays are generally short-term, the collaborative wants to ensure that families receive support and learn skills they need to care for children with mental health problems at home.This cost-effective strategy keeps families in tact, and decreases the need for repeated hospitalizations and out-of-state placements.

As part of this process, the collaborative is evaluating the discharge planning practices of three provider agencies and will analyze the data it collects to develop recommendations for more family-focused care.