The Children’s Mental Health Program is a coordinated network of community-based services and supports that is youth-guided and family-driven to produce individualized, evidence-based, culturally and linguistically competent outcomes that improve the lives of children and their families.
This program provides funding for in-home and community-based outpatient services, crisis services and residential treatment (including psychiatric residential treatment facilities, Therapeutic Foster Care and Therapeutic Group Homes provided through joint Medicaid and Mental Health Program contracts with behavioral health managed entities and providers).
The program also provides coordination and management of the Juvenile Incompetent to Proceed (JITP) program. The system requires that services are individualized, culturally competent, integrated, and coordinated. The aim is to provide a smooth transition, from children’s mental health to the adult mental health system for continued age-appropriate services and supports. These services are designed to build resilience and to prevent, severity, duration and disabling aspects of children’s mental and emotional disorders.
Florida's Children's Mental Health program is fully committed to the value of family involvement. We strongly believe that families must be included in all decisions regarding the planning and provision of mental health services for their children. It is the responsibility of all who work within the system of care to make every effort to assure families have a strong voice and are actively involved in the decisions being made that impact their child and family.
Additionally, we are equally committed to including families in policymaking. Since families have personal experience with the service delivery system, they provide a reality base for policymakers, a fresh perspective on how the system of care is serving their children, and ideas for improving services.
Florida's Juvenile Incompetent to Proceed (JITP) Program provides competency restoration services to juveniles who have been charged with a felony prior to their 18th birthday and do not have the ability to participate in legal proceedings due to their mental illness, mental retardation, or autism.
Juvenile Incompetent to Proceed Program Juvenile Incompetent to Proceed Program (opens in a new tab)
Children may be eligible for Medicaid. Medicaid-covered services can be provided only to Medicaid-eligible children, only by Medicaid-enrolled providers. Medicaid services in Florida include a wide array of non-residential community mental health service planning, assessment, and treatment services. Additionally, Medicaid reimburses for specialized therapeutic foster care and crisis intervention provided in a certified therapeutic foster home.
You can apply for Medicaid for children in two ways:
Section 394.4781, Florida Statutes, authorizes the Department to pay a portion of the costs associated with residential care for children who have been diagnosed with severe emotional disturbance, who are recommended to need a residential level of mental health treatment by a Florida licensed psychologist or psychiatrist , and who are not eligible for public or private insurance.
The Department has very limited state General Revenue funds to purchase residential mental health treatment for children who qualify and is required to review applications monthly to approve or disapprove each application in accordance with:
Each region has a procedure for reviewing applications for residential mental health treatment and determining whether placement in such a setting is the least restrictive, most beneficial treatment alternative for the child. Many children, even those with severe conditions, can be more effectively served in the community with a specially designed program of "wraparound" services for the child and family.
The goal of mental health treatment is to assist the child to live successfully in their community and with their families. Therefore, the placement of a child into residential mental health treatment should be made only after careful consideration is given to less restrictive treatment alternatives. Regions use a staffing process involving the child and parents or other caregivers and a multiagency group of professionals to consider the strengths and needs of the child and family and developed a service plan to enable the child either to remain at home or to return home from the treatment setting as soon as possible. Only if the needed services cannot be provided in a less restrictive environment is placement in a residential mental health treatment program considered.
If residential treatment is approved by the regional office, it must then be determined if funding is available to place the child. All available sources of funds are explored, including insurance (public and private) and cost-sharing with the family, the local school district, and other programs involved with the child, such as child welfare and juvenile justice.
Multi-disciplinary planning teams, often called Family Service Planning Teams are family-focused and community-based, and serve as a focus for identifying supports and service planning for the family. The purpose of the teams is to help the family and other caregivers needing services from more than one agency to develop and implement a workable plan for treating the child's mental health and other service needs while the child remains in the community.
Children staffed by a Multidisciplinary Planning Team or other staffing process may have a case manager assigned to take the lead in coordinating the service plan. If there is more than one program involved with the child, it should be clarified who will have the lead for the overall service plan and who will have primary responsibility for any court-related activities. The service plan should clearly spell out who is responsible for each service plan goal. Any other case plans, such as the Individual Educational Plan, must also be coordinated.