Children and youth with or at risk for mental health disorders and their families often need supports and services from multiple child- and family-serving agencies in their communities, but the help they receive is often fragmented and uncoordinated. Coordinated systems of care (SOC) provide a spectrum of effective, flexible, community-based, and culturally appropriate services to children and their families. Youth, their caregivers, and other supportive persons are full partners in all aspects of the planning and delivery of services, which are provided in the least restrictive, most normative environment that are clinically appropriate.

The Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation (ILCHF) is providing funding for ten communities in Illinois to develop or expand their children’s mental health systems of care under their ongoing Children’s Mental Health Initiative (CMHI) grants. Led by principal investigator Dr. Tamara Fuller, the Children and Family Research Center is conducting a comprehensive evaluation of the implementation and impact of these children’s mental health initiatives. The evaluation includes several components, including biennial site visits in each of the ten sites to collect data on the progress of the implementation of the systems of care; a system of care fidelity assessment that examines whether services are provided in accordance with SOC values and principles; descriptive studies of the children and families who are receiving services in each community, the services that are provided to them, and the costs associated with these services; and a longitudinal outcome study will assess change over time among the children, youth, and families participating in systems of care services in the ten communities.