School-based trauma-informed support services and mental health care for children and youth in camden county, new jersey - the camden county educational services commission (ccesc), in coordination…

School-based trauma-informed support services and mental health care for children and youth in camden county, new jersey - the camden county educational services commission (ccesc), in coordination with behavioral health provider oaks integrated care (oaks), is seeking to develop and implement school based trauma informed support services and mental health care in camden county, new jersey, to serve pre-k through 12TH grade students in public, charter, renaissance, nonpublic schools, state facilities, and private schools for the disabled. Ccesc and oaks provide a variety of overlapping school based services in camden county; therefore, the proposed proactive programmatic services will include all municipalities and educational institutions within the county, and the proposed targeted reactive programmatic services embedded within various districts will include those municipalities and schools with the highest rates of referrals to the county's crisis center and children's mobile response (CMR) services. A prominent issue at the forefront of youth mental health treatment in camden county sees school districts defaulting to sending youth to the emergency department (ED) for discharge and clearance to return to school following a mental health crisis. Without the proper linkage and referral to treatment services, which is beyond crisis service's capacity and scope, treating the school clearance as a simple "check-mark" for the student greatly exacerbates any current and future mental health issues and challenges. The current system passes liability from one entity to another, resulting in the "revolving door" phenomenon of individuals cycling in and out of the public health system. The goal of the proposed school-based project is to provide services to address the unmet behavioral and mental health needs of the target population by increasing accessibility to services and strengthening collaboration between schools, their faculty, families of students, and mental health services providers. Ccesc and oaks will serve a total of 125 individuals in year 1, and 250 individuals annually in year 2 through 4, for a total level of service of 875 unduplicated individuals through the 4 year project period. This number is based on actual trends of referrals and admissions served in oaks' crisis center and CMR programs.