Building Bridges for Children's Mental Health
Client
Colorado Department of Education
Funder
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools
Stakeholders
The grant is being overseen by a State Leadership Team and a Mesa County Leadership Team, both composed of representatives of education, human services, behavioral health, juvenile justice, family advocacy, and other key stakeholder groups.
Description
Building Bridges for Children’s Mental Health Project in Colorado (Building Bridges) is designed to build a statewide system to support and sustain the integration of public schools and local behavioral health systems that will lead to increased access to behavioral health services and improved outcomes for school-aged children. Building Bridges will integrate two complementary approaches currently in place in many Colorado communities: Positive Behavior Supports (PBS) from the education system, which is based on a preventive or public health framework, and System of Care (SOC) from the behavioral health system, which has focused on children and youth with serious mental health issues and those with co-occurring disorders. Both approaches have corresponding values and guiding principles that will drive the systems change process leading to a full continuum of behavioral health services and supports for Colorado’s students.
At the local level, Mesa County has been chosen as the demonstration site to pilot the policies, technical assistance, training, tools and other documented resources proposed by the project. Once piloted by the demonstration site, evaluated, and revised, these resources will be posted online on the CDE website as well as disseminated at annual conferences, trainings and events, including four regional train-the-trainer workshops aimed at building statewide capacity. Materials and products directed at youth and families will be translated into Spanish and CDE will assist local schools to translate these materials into other languages.
Products
- Building Bridges Focus Group Results
- Building Bridges Focus Group Results Addendum
- Building Bridges Spanish Focus Group Results Addendum
- Other Products are available on the Building Bridges Website
Links
