Determine how your county may benefit from building a Tech Collab
Research indicates that limited collaboration between agencies serving system-impacted youth is a barrier to accessing evidence-based behavioral health care. In contrast, cross-agency collaboration enhances youth access to such care.
For instance, the San Francisco juvenile dependency court and frontline staff from multiple sectors (e.g., child welfare, legal, education, behavioral health care) work together to support the well-being of foster care youth. These frontline professionals are referred to as 'champions,' a concept elaborated on in the next lesson.
Effective collaboration between agencies is crucial for providing system-impacted youth with effective care. Technology-driven solutions have potential to improve access to behavioral health services, though research on their specific impact for system-impacted youth remains limited.
To learn how your county and serving agencies can identify and collaborate with relevant champions to improve behavioral health and legal outcomes for systems-impacted youth, please continue to the next section to learn more about champions.
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Behavioral health services: Treatment and/or interventions for behavioral health needs.
Champions: Staff employed by agencies or institutions who emerge as natural leaders and/or are intimately familiar with the inner workings of their employer and “how the system works.”
System-impacted youth and families: Youth (and their families) who have had contact with the juvenile legal and/or child welfare system(s) and experienced a change in their life as a result of system contact.