Child Welfare Information Gateway
Skip to main content
  • U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
  • Administration for Children & Families
  • Children's Bureau
Child Welfare Information Gateway
REPORT ABUSE OR
NEGLECT
FIND HELP WITH A
PERSONAL SITUATION   

Home Topics Publications Library State Resources More Tools & Resources News & Events
REPORT ABUSE OR
NEGLECT
FIND HELP WITH A
PERSONAL SITUATION   
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Chat
  • Free Subscriptions
  • Resources in Spanish
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Chat
  • Resources in Spanish
  • Shopping Cart
  • Home
  • Topics
    • Family-Centered Practice
      • Philosophy and Key Elements of Family-Centered Practice
      • Family-Centered Practice Across the Service Continuum
      • Engaging Families
      • Family-Centered Casework Practice
      • Family Group Decision-Making
      • Engaging Communities to Support Families
      • Creating a Family-Centered Agency Culture
    • Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Definitions of Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Identification of Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Risk Factors That Contribute to Child Abuse and Neglect
      • People Who Engage in Child Abuse or Neglect
      • Impact of Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Child Abuse & Neglect Fatalities
    • Preventing Child Abuse & Neglect
      • National Child Abuse Prevention Month
      • Overview: Preventing Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Promoting Child & Family Well-Being
      • Public Awareness & Creating Supportive Communities
      • Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Programs
      • Developing & Sustaining Prevention Programs
      • Evidence-Based Practice for Child Abuse Prevention
      • Evaluating Prevention Programs
    • Responding to Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Introduction to Responding to Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Reporting Child Abuse and Neglect
      • Assessment in Child Protection
      • Differential Response in Child Protective Services
      • Child Protection Casework Practice
      • Responding to Child Maltreatment Near Fatalities and Fatalities
      • Trauma-Informed Practice in Child Welfare
      • Collaborative Responses to Child Abuse & Neglect
    • Supporting & Preserving Families
      • Supporting Families With Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders
      • Introduction to Family Support and Preservation
      • In-Home Services Involved With Child Protection
      • Family Support Services
      • Resources for Managers of Family Support and Preservation Services
      • Family Preservation Services
    • Out-of-Home Care
      • National Foster Care Month
      • Overview: Out-of-Home Care
      • Foster Care
      • Group and Residential Care
      • Kinship Care
      • Casework Practice in Out-of-Home Care
      • Transition to Adulthood and Independent Living
      • Placement Decisions
      • Resources for Foster Families
    • Achieving & Maintaining Permanency
      • Overview: Achieving & Maintaining Permanency
      • Reunifying Families
      • Recruiting and Retaining Resource Families
      • Permanency With Relatives and Kin
      • Guardianship
      • Permanency for Specific Youth Populations
      • Legal and Court Issues in Permanency
      • Interjurisdictional Placements
      • Working With Children, Youth, and Families in Permanency Planning
      • Working With Children, Youth, and Families After Permanency
      • Resources for Administrators and Managers About Permanency
      • Resources for Families About Permanency
    • Adoption
      • National Adoption Month
      • All-In Foster Adoption Challenge
      • Children's Bureau Adoption Call to Action
      • Adoption and Guardianship Assistance by State
      • Introduction to Adoption
      • Ethical Issues in Adoption
      • For Adopted People
      • For Adoption Program Managers & Administrators
      • For Expectant Parents Considering Adoption and Birth Parents
      • How to Adopt
      • Laws Related to Adoption
      • Parenting After Adoption
      • Preplacement Adoption Casework Practice
      • Postplacement Adoption Casework Practice
      • Search & Reunion in Adoption
    • Management & Supervision
      • Administering & Managing Child Welfare Agencies & Programs
      • Child Welfare Practice Improvement
      • Disaster Preparedness & Response
      • Ethical Practice & Client Rights
      • Evaluating Program and Practice Effectiveness
      • Funding
      • Information Systems & Data
      • Supervising Child Welfare Services
      • System Reform
      • Training
      • Workforce
    • Systemwide
      • Assessment
      • Behavioral Health & Wellness
      • Courts
      • Cultural Responsiveness
      • Diverse Populations and Communities
      • Domestic Violence
      • Human Trafficking
      • Laws & Policies
      • Service Array
      • Statistics
      • Well-Being
      • Youth
  • Publications
    • Publications Series
    • Browse by Topic
    • Browse by Title
    • índice de Títulos en Español (Spanish Title Index)
  • Library
    • Library Services
    • Library Search Help
  • State Resources
    • State Statutes
    • National Foster Care & Adoption Directory
    • State Guides & Manuals Search
    • State-Related Organizations Lists
    • Adoption and Guardianship Assistance by State
  • More Tools & Resources
    • Related Organizations
    • Learning Center
    • Resources From the Children's Bureau
      • Children's Bureau Discretionary Grants
      • The Story of the Children's Bureau
      • Children's Bureau Video Series
    • Child Welfare Information Gateway Podcast Series
    • Multimedia
      • Videos
      • Webinars
    • Family Engagement Inventory
  • News & Events
    • Free Subscriptions
    • Adoption Triad
    • Children's Bureau Express (CBX)
    • The Grantee Connection
    • New on Information Gateway
    • New From the Children's Bureau
    • Event Calendar
  • Home
  • Topics
  • Systemwide
  • Behavioral Health & Wellness
  • Cross-System Collaboration to Support Behavioral Health and Wellness
  • Mental Health and Cross-System Collaboration

Mental Health and Cross-System Collaboration

Utilizing a holistic approach is paramount in supporting the mental health needs of children, youth, and families who are in or at risk of entering foster care. By partnering across systems, child welfare professionals can ensure a collaborative response that is more likely to result in children and their caregivers having access to high quality and culturally appropriate services to support their social-emotional development and mental well-being. Resources on this page focus on prioritizing a collaborative approach to mental health services and building supports to help strengthen families to ultimately improve outcomes of permanency. 

A National Agenda for Children’s Mental Health
ChildTrends (2021)
Identifies ways to build a system to effectively improve the mental health and well-being of children and youth. Find principles to guide the focus, and strategies to implement an equitable mental health system for children and youth with a focus on the challenges of supporting children during the pandemic.

Building Collaborative Capacity
National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare
Highlights resources that emphasize the importance of building collaborative relationships and teaches effective relationship development to ultimately improve outcomes for children and families.

The Evolution of the System of Care Approach for Children, Youth, and Young Adults With Mental Health Conditions and Their Families
Children’s Mental Health Network (2021)
Describes the system of care approach efforts, which have resulted in significant improvements in addressing youth mental health issues, and shares how this approach has changed and where more improvements can be made.

Finding a Program or Service
Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse
Rates several services and treatments designed to address mental health and substance use disorders in terms of their efficacy and evidence base according to title IV-E requirements. 

Fostering Anti-Raciscm and Equity in Mental Health Services and Systems [Webinar]
National Training and Technical Assistance Center (2022)
Provides actions organizations can take to improve inequities amongst organizations and services they provide to foster a culture of true diversity. 

Gender-Affirming Care Is Trauma-Informed Care (PDF - 129 KB)
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (2022)
Discusses developmentally appropriate, evidence-based trauma-informed care support for transgender, gender diverse, and intersex (TGI) youth. 

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy: A Primer for Child Welfare Professionals

Series Title
Factsheets
Author(s)
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability
View
Download (PDF - 284KB)
Order (Free)
Year Published
2019
Helps child welfare professionals gain a better understanding of parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT), including which clients should be referred for this approach, how it is implemented, and resources for additional information. PCIT is a family-centered treatment approach for children ages 2–7 with disruptive behavior and has also been used with abused and at-risk children ages 2–12. It is an appropriate therapy for all caregivers—birth parents, adoptive parents, or foster or kin caregivers—and includes the treatment of both the parent and child together along with live coaching. One of PCIT's benefits is that it can help reduce the risk for child maltreatment.

The Power of Collaboration in Preventing Child Neglect, Partnering With Substance Abuse, Mental Health and Domestic Violence System
FRIENDS (2018)
Focuses on collaborative strategies with substance abuse, mental health, and domestic violence partners and providers in an effort to prevent child abuse and neglect among families. 

Protecting Youth Mental Health: The U.S. Surgeon General's Advisory (PDF - 1,010 KB) 
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Surgeon General (2021) 
Shares recommendations on how child welfare professionals increase awareness of mental health as a public health issue and how they can take action to better support and address the mental health needs for youth and children.

Providing Unbiased Services for LGBTQ Youth Project
Youth.gov
Focuses on encouraging organizations to adjust trainings, policy, and strategies to collaborate and effectively provide unbiased services for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth in out-of-home care.

What Is Child Welfare? A Guide for Behavioral and Mental Health Professionals

Series Title
Factsheets
Author(s)
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability
View
Download (PDF - 287KB)
Order (Free)
Year Published
2019
Provides a brief overview of child welfare, describes how behavioral and mental health professionals and child welfare workers can support each other, and offers additional information resources. Working together, behavioral and mental health practitioners and child welfare workers can make sure that children, youth, and families receive appropriate services that promote healthy functioning and well-being.

(Back to Top)

Spotlight On

HHS Announces $3 Billion in American Rescue Plan Funding for SAMHSA Block Grants to Address Addiction, Mental Health Crisis

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (2021)

National Training and Technical Assistance Center for Child, Youth, and Family Mental Health (NTTAC)

Related Content

Interagency and Cross-System Collaboration

Children's Bureau - An office of the Administration for Children and Families

Child Welfare Information Gateway is a service of the

  • Children’s Bureau
  • Administration for Children and Families
  • U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
↑ Back to top
  • HOME
  • TOPICS
    • Family-Centered Practice
    • Child Abuse & Neglect
    • Preventing Child Abuse & Neglect
    • Responding to Child Abuse & Neglect
    • Supporting & Preserving Families
    • Out-of-Home Care
    • Achieving & Maintaining Permanency
    • Adoption
    • Management & Supervision
    • Systemwide
  • National Initiatives
    • National Adoption Month
    • National Child Abuse Prevention Month
    • National Foster Care Month
  • Publications
    • Publications Series
    • Browse by Title
    • Browse by Topic
    • Índice de Títulos en Español
  • Library
    • Search the Library
  • State Resources
    • State Statutes
    • National Foster Care & Adoption Directory
    • State Guides & Manuals
    • State Related Organizations Lists
    • Adoption Assistance by State
  • More Tools & Resources
    • Related Organizations
    • Learning Center
    • Children's Bureau Resources
    • Information Gateway Podcast
    • Multimedia
    • Family Engagement Inventory
  • NEWS AND EVENTS
    • New on Information Gateway
    • New From the Children's Bureau
    • Event Calendar
  • ABOUT US
    • How to Report Child Abuse or Neglect
    • Find Help With a Personal Situation
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Glossary
    • Search A to Z
  • Contact Us
    • 1-800-394-3366
    • info@childwelfare.gov
    • Subscribe to Free Updates
    • Chat With Us
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on YouTube
  • POLICIES & HELPFUL LINKS
    • Disclaimer and Policies
    • Privacy Policy
    • Accessibility
    • FOIA requests
    • No FEAR Act data
    • Office of the Inspector General
    • Performance reports
    • Vulnerability Disclosure Policy
    • USA.gov
    • Download Acrobat Reader
  • ↑ Back to top