Washington DC - October 26, 2023: The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) is proud to announce a partnership with the American Association for Community Psychiatry (AACP) to provide a web-based, digital, child and adolescent level-of-care need evaluation instrument, the CALOCUS-CASII. This tool is designed to assist communities, healthcare professionals and administrators in streamlining the process of determining the appropriate level of mental health care service intensity for children, youth, and families.

Commenting on the partnership, AACAP president, Warren Ng, MD, remarked, "AACAP prioritizes strengthening our partnerships throughout care systems, communities, and among clinical and political stakeholders in serving children, adolescents and families. These alliances couldn't be more critical, especially given the ongoing youth mental health crisis our nation faces."

AACP’s President, Altha Stewart, MD, added “Since its formation, the AACP has been committed to transforming the way that behavioral healthcare services are delivered, so that our patients receive access to the right kind of care and at the right time. This was our intention behind the creation of the Level of Care Utilization System for Psychiatric and Addiction Services (LOCUS) in 1996. We are thrilled to be partnering with our colleagues and friends at AACAP to promote the broadscale dissemination and utilization of CALOCUS-CASII. Now more than ever, the children and families we serve deserve an approach to care decision-making that is defensible, consistent and equitable."

CALOCUS-CASII provides a common framework for making decisions on the level of service intensity needed in the behavioral health treatment of child and adolescents ages 6-18, and to monitor progress over time. Rooted in a comprehensive System of Care approach, this tool is both developmentally informed and founded on principles of family-driven and youth-guided care. This includes a focus on individualized, strength-based, and culturally responsive service planning. It supports the use of intensive care coordination and/or wraparound planning teams when necessary, offering a wide spectrum of services that incorporate and value natural supports alongside clinical services.

A distinguishing feature of the CALOCUS-CASII is its acknowledgment that home and community-based services, coupled with natural supports, can enrich and amplify the therapeutic impact of services. This contrasts with the traditional reliance on out-of-home placements to achieve heightened levels of service intensity.

The electronic CALOCUS-CASII is currently under development and not yet available for use.

For more information, please contact communications@aacap.org.

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The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) is a national professional medical association dedicated to promoting the healthy development of children, adolescents, and families. With a membership of over 10,000 professionals, AACAP provides valuable resources, expertise, and advocacy to advance the field of child and adolescent psychiatry and improve mental health care for young people. For more information, please visit www.aacap.org

American Association for Community Psychiatry (AACP) The mission of the American Association for Community Psychiatry is to promote health, recovery, and resilience in people, families, and communities by inspiring and supporting community psychiatric care providers, and in transforming behavioral health care. For more information, please visit www.communitypsychiatry.org