CHDI and our partners have released a new strategic plan to strengthen the state's behavioral health workforce.

The plan, developed in collaboration with the Children’s Behavioral Health Plan Implementation Advisory Board, included input from providers, families, and experts. It identifies systemic issues, such as insufficient insurance reimbursement rates, and shares innovative solutions from across the nation. Most importantly, it recommends strategies to strengthen the workforce in eight key areas.

“Children are experiencing more behavioral health concerns and families are increasingly struggling to access appropriate and timely services,” says Chief Program Officer Jason Lang, Ph.D., who co-authored the plan. “This report identifies specific strategies to strengthen the children’s behavioral health system and improve access to quality services for all children and families, whenever and wherever they are needed.”

In late October, eight CHDI staff members participated in the 2023 National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) Virtual Summit Initiative, “Being Anti-Racist is Central to Trauma-Informed Care: Deconstructing and Reconstructing Child and Family Serving Systems.”

This was the second NCTSN summit on anti-racism that our team has participated in since 2020. The summits have helped guide CHDI's ongoing journey to becoming an anti-racist organization, establish core values, and assess and revise our organizational policies and operations to be more equitable. Learn more about our commitment to anti-racism and equity.

The new Connect4Families Toolkit from Connecting to Care simplifies access to children's behavioral health services and facilitate collaboration among families, schools, and pediatric medical and behavioral health providers.

This free, online toolkit includes a comprehensive service directory, customizable communication forms, best practices, collaboration tips from families and other providers, billing info, and more.

The Trauma ScreenTIME Pediatric Primary Care Course is now available nationwide! This free, online course provides clinical and administrative staff in pediatric primary care settings with the knowledge to effectively screen children for trauma and connect families with supports and services.

Course participants have the opportunity to earn 25 points of MOC Part 4 credit through the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) by applying what they learn in the course to create Quality Improvement (QI) Projects for their workplaces.

The new strategic plan for strengthening Connecticut's behavioral health workforce was covered by several local and regional news outlets, featuring quotes from plan co-authors Jason Lang and Aleece Kelly:

"New Connecticut Strategy to Address BH Workforce, Youth Care Needs," Mental Health Weekly, 11/13/23

For the People Radio Interview with Jason Lang, 11/19/23 (recording available)

“Strengthening the Behavioral Health Workforce: A Strategic Plan for Connecticut,” CT By the Numbers, 11/11/23

"Report: CT needs to bolster child behavioral health system," CT News Service, 11/24/23

Milford Patch and HamletHub ran a story on how new federal funds will support expanded behavioral health services in Milford and West Haven schools through a grant to our partners at Bridges Healthcare. CHDI will partner with Bridges to integrate trauma screening into their work. Read the story below:

"Bridges Healthcare Receives Federal Grant for Expanding School-Based Trauma Treatment," HamletHub, 11/3/23

CHDI President & CEO Jeffrey Vanderploeg, Ph.D. and board member Wizdom Powell participated in the Youth Well-Being Action Convening hosted by Headspace and Hopelab Foundation.

The event brought together intergenerational, cross-disciplinary mental health innovators to develop new ideas for fostering a strengths-based digital mental health ecosystem for youth.

Earlier this month, Jeff also presented at the Connecticut College Psychology Department’s colloquium series on the role of public/private partnerships in effective policymaking, using examples from CHDI’s work.

Chief Program Officer Jason Lang, Ph.D., and Project Coordinator Alyssa Korell, Ph.D., shared insights from CHDI's trauma initiatives at the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) 39th Annual Meeting in Los Angeles on November 2-3.

Alyssa’s presentation, "Disparities in Engagement and Outcomes for Children Receiving Trauma-Focused Treatment in Outpatient Care," shared findings from CHDI’s work disseminating Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), including patterns of better treatment outcomes for younger children (compared to older), girls (compared to boys), and Black and Hispanic/Latinx children (compared to White children). Learn more about CHDI's work on TF-CBT.

Jason presented on initial results from CHDI’s online trauma screening courses, Trauma ScreenTIME. These courses were designed to help both clinical and non-clinical staff of child-serving organizations learn to effectively screen children for trauma, including administrators, managers and supervisors, and frontline staff. However, as Jason shared, our analysis found that most course participants to date have been clinicians. Learn more about the Trauma ScreenTIME courses - and the many different staff roles that can benefit from this training - on our website.

CHDI's Associate Vice President of School & Community Initiatives, Jeana Bracey, Ph.D., was a panelist on a session exploring evidence-based behavioral health interventions for children and youth exposed to violence at the 64th Annual Conference of the National Dialogues on Behavioral Health in New Orleans. She shared outcomes from Mobile Crisis and the School-Based Diversion Initiative (SBDI) as examples of interventions that work across systems to identify youth early and connect them to appropriate services and supports.

On November 6th, Jeana also served as a panelist on the UConn Collaboratory on School and Child Health (CSCH) webinar, "Building Partnerships to Advance Inclusive Team Science."

As part of a discussion on strategies for forming effective partnerships, Jeana spoke about CHDI's recent collaboration with UConn. Missed the webinar? Watch the recording here.

On November 7th, Senior Project Coordinator Rebekah Behan and Project Coordinator Rosie Briendel presented at the Connecticut Association of School Based Health Centers' annual conference.

They discussed the implementation of Comprehensive School Mental Health (CSMH) systems in Connecticut and how schools and districts can use the School Health Assessment and Performance Evaluation (SHAPE) system to assess existing systems, capture all efforts and data in one place, identify strengths, and prioritize gap areas.

CHDI provides no-cost technical assistance and guidance to Connecticut districts and schools interested in using SHAPE to assess and develop comprehensive school mental health systems. Learn more about how we can help your school or district.

Missed this presentation? Our team will be presenting a version of it at the National Center for School Mental Health annual conference in New Orleans next week.

Andrea Eastman, M.S., joined the CHDI team as Director of People & Culture on November 27th. In this new role, Andrea will lead the organization's human resources functions and manage the development and implementation of internal initiatives that advance anti-racism, equity, inclusion, and a culture of belonging at CHDI.

Allison DiVicino, LMFT, joined CHDI on November 29 as a Project Coordinator. In this role, she will focus on CHDI’s substance use disorder (SUD) initiatives, including work in youth outpatient settings through a DCF-funded SUD project and in-home services through SAMHSA’s CT-TREE grant.

Allison is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with six years of clinical and supervisory experience in outpatient psychiatric clinics for children, most recently at United Community & Family Services (UCFS). She is also certified in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) in Connecticut.

CHDI is now accepting applications for a one-year postdoctoral fellowship to begin in summer 2024. The Fellow will work on one or more initiatives focused on improving children’s behavioral health in Connecticut, with an emphasis on working at the systems, policy, and practice levels.

The Child Health and Development Institute (CHDI) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing effective and integrated system, practice, and policy solutions that result in equitable and optimal behavioral health and well-being for children, youth, and families in Connecticut and beyond.

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