Clinicians who serve children and adolescents with complex mental health needs generally find themselves interfacing with multiple child-serving systems and community programs, including juvenile justice, child welfare, substance abuse, developmental disabilities, and schools. AACAP advocates for the improvement of services in each of the systems to ensure children have access to a full array of prevention, early intervention, and treatment options.

Learn more about AACAP's clinical practice resources for community-based systems of care.

Foster Care

• AACAP Policy Statement: Appropriate Use of Psychiatric Medication for Youth in Foster Care (2018)

• Government Accountability Office: HHS Has Taken Steps to Support States’ Oversight of Psychotropic Medications, but Additional Assistance Could Further Collaboration (2017)

• AACAP’s Recommendations about the Use of Psychotropic Medications for Children and Adolescents Involved in Child-Serving Systems (2015)

• A December 2011 report from the Government Accountability Office discusses the use of psychotropic medications with children in foster care. The report highlights AACAP's  Position Statement on Oversight of Psychotropic Medication Use for Children in State Custody: A Best Principles Guideline as the basis to assess states psychotropic drug monitoring programs for children in foster care. As a result, many states are adopting AACAP guidelines as they develop oversight systems.

Schools

The Mental Health Services for Students Act, H.R. 1109/S. 1122, introduced by Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-CA) and Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN), provides grants to local education authorities to bring community-based mental health resources into schools to provide comprehensive mental health services.

• American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and American Psychiatric Association Detail Steps Necessary for Safely Reopening Schools This Fall (July 2020)
  
  
• AACAP’s Children and Schools Resource Center (2020)

Substance Abuse

• AACAP Policy Statement: Opioid Use Disorder Treatment for Youth (2020)

Children at the Border

• Youth at the Border Resource Library
  

• AACAP Policy Statement: Separating Immigrant Children From Their Families (2018)