August 14, 2009

Services for Florida Children With Mental Health & Co-Occurring Substance Abuse Treatment Needs in Out-of-Home Care Placement

Florida Department of Children and Families released this draft operating procedure. It is the intent of this operating procedure to fully integrate mental health and/or mental health and co-occurring substance abuse services for children placed into out-of-home care by the Department. This procedure provides standards of care to ensure that children are assessed as to their need for mental health and any co-occurring substance abuse services and provided with individualized treatment and integrated services in support of their safety, permanency and wellbeing. It provides for a system of accessing and tracking referrals and service provision to ensure timeliness and quality of care and to work toward continuous improvement in service delivery and responsiveness. It further provides guidance for making appropriate referrals for residential mental health treatment when needed. Finally, it provides guidance for the required express and informed consent to, or authorization for the provision of psychotropic medications and the medical and psychotropic monitoring that is necessary when such medications are administered.