Efforts to help youth successfully move to adulthood include college tuition assistance and life skills education. Mental Health Use resources more effectively and efficiently by focusing on community based models. Reduce reliance on treatments that remove children from their normal lives in their home, school, and neighborhood. Early interventions avoid bigger problems later. Work to include the family in all plans and treatments and to improve the child's important relations in the community with their families, schools, peers, and civic and religious organizations.
Successful treatments focus on the child's real life and occur in the child's own setting.
Using local systems of care, known as Connecticut Community Kid Care, meet the child's and the family's real needs without undue programmatic restrictions. Substance Abuse Drug and alcohol abuse is a primary cause of behavioral problems as well as abuse and neglect. Use substance abuse treatment as a critical prevention tool in the effort to improve child protection and juvenile justice. Early assessments for families and children, as well as multi-pronged programs that engage children in the communities where they lead their lives, are the most effective to prevent problems from escalating. Focus on treating children where they live with outreach and tracking programs offered by groups such as community action programs and youth service bureaus.