Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative Evidence-Based and Community-Defined Evidence Practices Round Five: Early Intervention Programs and Practices

As part of the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative (CYBHI), the CA Dept. of Health Care Services (DHCS), in partnership with the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission (Commission), released a Request for Application (RFA) on Sept 13, 2023, seeking proposals for the fifth round of grant funding totaling up to $80 million to scale early intervention programs available to children, youth, parents, and caregivers.

Authorized as part of the 2021 Budget Act, the CYBHI is a multi-year, multi-department package of investments that reimagines the systems that support behavioral health (BH) and wellness for all California’s children, youth, and their families. Efforts focus on promoting social and emotional well-being, preventing behavioral health challenges, and providing equitable, appropriate, timely, and accessible services for emerging and existing BH needs for children and youth ages 0-25. The $4.7 billion investment of state General Funds for the CYBHI will improve access to, and the quality of, BH services for all children and youth in California, regardless of payer. In Round Five, DHCS seeks to scale early intervention programs and practices that provide mental health and wellness services to children, youth, parents, and caregivers in California. These programs will be equipped to meet the needs of youth, including mental and behavioral health needs, housing, education and employment support, and linkage to other services. Specifically, this grant funding round aims to: a.    Create and expand early intervention programs and practices that reduce stigma, embrace mental wellness, increase community connection and provide access to culturally responsive services. b.    Provide a safe space for children and youth to find community, support, and advice. c.    Increase early intervention so children and youth with or at high risk for BH conditions can access services before conditions escalate and require higher level care. d.    Reduce health disparities by improving equitable access to services for parents, caregivers, and children in California that are culturally and linguistically responsive to the needs of the populations of focus. e.    Reduce utilization of higher acuity setting through early intervention. Through a Third-Party Administrator, the Commission, DHCS will award grants, totaling up to $80 million to scale early intervention programs and practices to provide children and youth access to mental health services throughout California. For Round Five, the following EBPs and/or CDEPs will be scaled through competitive grant awards: a.    Coordinated Specialty Care (CSC) for First Episode of Psychosis (Appendix 1), b.    Other early intervention programs and practices, which include but are not limited to:        o   Blues Program        o   Culturally Informed and Flexible Family-Based Treatment for Adolescents (CIFFTA)        o   Familias Unidas         o   Residential Student Assistance Program (RSAP)        o   Resourceful Adolescent Program-Adolescent (RAP-A)        o   Youth Mobile Crisis Response DHCS recognizes that the short-listed evidence-based practices may not have been developed or normalized for populations of focus. Additional early intervention programs that are designed with, by, and for youth may be considered eligible for grant funding with the submission of supplementary material. The RFA for Round Five: Early Intervention Programs and Practices Grants is located on the Commission’s website.