PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

January 5, 2010

A New Phase In Children’s Mental Health
Last October, the Connecticut Health Foundation (CT Health) began phase two of its children’s mental health initiative. 

The importance of this initiative is two-fold:

• It promises to reduce the number of children ages 6-14 at risk of entering intensive treatment and/or the juvenile justice system due to their mental health problems
• It reflects the support CT Health and its partners provide to innovative ways of changing Connecticut’s health systems

Initially, CT Health’s focus in this priority area was assisting children needing the highest level of care by funding entities such as mental health systems and collaboratives.  In January 2008, our focus changed to preventing children from requiring intensive levels of care – and this new initiative.

CT Health’s change in focus was in part a result of the feedback received from its grantees, which also led the foundation to revise its strategic plan.

The key to CT Health’s children’s mental health initiative was developing a secondary prevention system – an integrated community-wide plan that includes early identification, assessment and appropriate interventions, as well as unites with other community organizations and systems, such as a mental health agency and schools. 

To achieve this objective, phase one of the initiative (January 2008 to June 2009) provided 18-month planning grants of $125,000 to 12 communities across Connecticut tasked with developing a strategic plan addressing their local needs.   During this phase, CT Health provided technical assistance through the Educational Development Center, based in Massachusetts.

Each community submitted their plan for review on June 30.  When the review process was completed, four communities – Derby, Manchester, Middletown and Waterbury – were recommended for further funding as demonstration sites during phase two (October 2009 – October 2014). 

CT Health believes these four plans offer promise in developing an effective secondary prevention system because they include integration of community systems, community support and proven practices focused on the child and family.

If successful, these pilot projects can lead to effective programs that can be replicated in other Connecticut communities.  They also will bring us closer to realizing the foundation’s goal in children’s mental health  – reducing the number of children entering the juvenile justice system and/or requiring the most intensive level of mental health treatment due to mental health problems.

And as it moves forward with its partners, CT Health will continue to seek and examine innovative ways of achieving its mission of improving the health of Connecticut’s residents.

Please email info@cthealth.org with your questions or comments.