National Guidelines for Child and Youth Behavioral Health Crisis Care

Course overview

Course Description: This course is based upon material published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and is available as an open-access article. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline transitioned to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in July 2022. This free, confidential system provides 24/7/365 behavioral health crisis response through text, chat, and voice calls. Congress increased its appropriation for the crisis center service to address rising rates of behavioral health crises across America. This transition represents an unparalleled opportunity to improve the delivery of crisis care in every community in the country. It also elevates our responsibility to ensure that crisis response services meet the needs of children, youth, and young adults, and their families and caregivers. The need for developmentally appropriate crisis response services for youth is acute. Yet, while many crisis response systems have robust services in place for adults, there are often considerable gaps in capacity to serve youth and families. Too often, youth experiencing behavioral health crisis face hospitalization or justice system involvement, instead of the home- and community-based services they need to de-escalate and stabilize. This is especially true for youth populations that have experienced high unmet behavioral health needs, including LGBTQ+, Black, and American Indian and Alaska Native youth. The National Guidelines for Child and Youth Behavioral Health Crisis Care provides guidance on how states and communities can address these gaps. It offers best practices, implementation strategies, and practical guidance for the design and development of services that meet the needs of American children and their families experiencing a behavioral health crisis. This course on guidelines for the design and development of behavioral health care for children is designed for social workers, professional counselors, psychologists, nurses, and substance abuse counselors, who do clinical work. In addition, this course is appropriate for beginning, intermediate and advanced level practitioners who wish to develop their knowledge of on guidelines for the design and development of behavioral health care for children. The course material includes a literature review of interventions and research. It may also be useful for licensed clinicians who require continuing clinical education courses for license renewal. The course is based on a journal article that includes research. It contains statistical analysis and data that some clinicians enjoy reading and others do not. A significant benefit of reading research-based articles for continuing education is they provide practitioners with the latest findings in their field. Authors: SAMHSA Learning Objectives: This course will provide the practitioner with detailed information regarding on guidelines for the design and development of behavioral health care for children. Specifically, a professional will: Identify components of a stepped care system and their characteristics. Recognize the importance of crisis receiving and stabilization services in the context of crisis support. Describe the core values and principles for crisis response systems. Describe how the System of Care framework contributes to a familys ability to receive services. Citation: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2022, November). National Guidelines for Child and Youth Behavioral Health Crisis Care. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. https://store.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/SAMHSA_Digital_Download/pep-22-01-02-001.pdf