A new program in Texas is designed to help kids who are in mental-health crisis, including those in foster care, the Dallas Morning News reports.
Thanks to a $1.75 million state grant, the North Texas Behavioral Health Authority will launch the Youth Crisis Outreach Team Plus.
The team will work with state child welfare workers, law enforcement officers, school districts, and other mental-health providers to provide crisis services, including stabilization and the development of a safety plan.
"Specialized mental health care can be difficult to access, particularly if you're a child navigating traumatic events and family separation," says North Texas Behavioral Health Authority chief of clinical operations Jessica Martinez.
"That's why we are heartened by a state grant of $1.75 million toward a Dallas-area initiative to support children in crisis and their caregivers."
Connecticut has a crisis response network with 14 teams, and researchers found that kids who received help from those teams were 22% less likely to visit an emergency room within 18 months.
Another upside of the new program: It should provide relief to overcrowded emergency rooms and the state's overwhelmed foster care system.
People suffering from a mental-health crisis often end up in emergency rooms, even though these are not meant to provide specialized psychiatric care.
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