The following principals and philosophy guide our System of Care:
Comprehensive Array of Services and Supports
Ensure availability and access to a broad, flexible array of effective, high-quality treatment, services, and supports for young people and their families that address their emotional, social, educational, physical health, and mental health needs, including natural and informal supports.
Individualized, Strengths-Based Services and Supports
Provide individualized services and supports tailored to the unique strengths, preferences, and needs of each young person and family that are guided by a strengths-based planning process and an individualized service plan developed in partnership with young people and their families.
Evidence-Based Practices and Practice- Based Evidence
Ensure that services and supports include evidence-informed, emerging evidence-supported, and promising practices to ensure the effectiveness of services and improve outcomes for young people and their families, as well as interventions supported by practice-based evidence provided by diverse communities, professionals, families, and young people.
Trauma-Informed
Provide services that are trauma-informed, including evidence- supported trauma-specific treatments, and implement system- wide policies and practices that address trauma.
Least Restrictive Natural Environment
Deliver services and supports within the least restrictive, most natural environments that are appropriate to the needs of young people and their families, including homes, schools, primary care, outpatient, and other community settings.
Partnerships with Families and Youth
Ensure that family and youth leaders and family- and youth-run organizations are full partners at the system level in policy, governance, system design and implementation, evaluation, and quality assurance in their communities, states, tribes, territories, and nation.
Interagency Collaboration
Ensure that services are coordinated at the system level, with linkages among youth-serving systems and agencies across administrative and funding boundaries (e.g., education, child welfare, juvenile justice, substance use, primary care) and with mechanisms for collaboration, system-level management, and addressing cross-system barriers to coordinated care.
Care Coordination
Provide care coordination at the service delivery level that is tailored to the intensity of need of young people and their families to ensure that multiple services and supports are delivered in a coordinated and therapeutic manner and that they can move throughout the system of services and supports in accordance with their changing needs and preferences.
Health-Mental Health Integration
Incorporate mechanisms to integrate services provided by primary health care and mental health service providers to increase the ability of primary care practitioners and behavioral health providers to better respond to both mental health and physical health problems.
Developmentally Appropriate Services and Supports
Provide developmentally appropriate services and supports, including services that promote optimal social-emotional outcomes for young children and their families and services and supports for youth and young adults to facilitate their transition to adulthood and to adult service systems as needed.
Public Health Approach
Incorporate a public health approach including mental health promotion, prevention, early identification, and early intervention in addition to treatment in order to improve long-term outcomes, including mechanisms in schools and other settings to identify problems as early as possible and implement mental health promotion and prevention activities directed at all children, youth, and young adults and their families.
Mental Health Equity
Provide equitable services and supports that are accessible to young people and families irrespective of race, religion, national origin, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, physical disability, socioeconomic status, geography, language, immigration status, or other characteristics; eliminate disparities in access and quality of services; and ensure that services are sensitive and responsive to all individuals.
Data Driven and Accountability
Incorporate mechanisms to ensure that systems and services are data-driven, with continuous accountability and quality improvement mechanisms to track, monitor, and manage the achievement of goals; fidelity to SOC values and principles; the utilization and quality of clinical services and supports; equity and disparities in service delivery; and outcomes and costs at the child and family and system levels.
Rights Protection and Advocacy
Protect the rights of young people and families through policies and procedures and promote effective advocacy efforts in concert with advocacy and peer-led organizations.