Collaborating for solutions
As an intermediary organization, CHDI brings people, knowledge, and ideas together. We spark and scale solutions that improve children’s behavioral health and well-being.
How we work
We connect people and bridge research to practice.
CHDI is an intermediary organization that serves as a bridge for connecting people, information, data, and systems. We work in close partnership with policymakers, providers, educators, and other partners to improve behavioral health systems, services, and outcomes.
Our approach is grounded in:
System of care values and principles
Working at the system, practice, and policy levels
Implementation science
CHDI’s work is grounded in the system of care philosophy, values, and principles (Stroul, Blau, & Larson, 2021). Since its inception in the late 1990s, CHDI has been a leader in supporting Connecticut’s ongoing transformation to align with these “north star” values and principles, clearly reflected and carried out in CHDI’s initiatives.
System of care values and principles include:
-
Family-driven and youth guided systems and services, guided by ongoing and meaningful partnerships with family and youth
-
Comprehensive, individualized, and strengths-based services and supports, guided by public health models, and including health promotion, prevention, and intervention
-
Health equity and justice
-
Evidence-based practices and practice-based evidence
-
Trauma-informed services
-
Treatment in the least restrictive environment necessary for meeting youth and family needs
-
Interagency collaboration
-
Using data to monitor and continually improve systems and services
For that reason, CHDI works across multiple systems including behavioral health, early childhood, education, public health, child welfare, juvenile justice, health financing, and others. We also directly support direct service providers with data reports, training, and technical assistance to deliver high-quality services. Finally, CHDI influences public policies on financing and system design by participating in numerous committees, councils, and task forces to advocate for research-based public policy.
CHDI relies on the implementation science principles and strategies to fully and sustainably integrate evidence-based practices and policies into real-world health care and community settings. We ensure that innovations are implemented with fidelity, efficiency, and quality, so that they reach the youth and families who need them most, producing optimal outcomes.
Our strategic process powers systems, practice, and policy improvement
Working with our many partners, we identify and assess needs within child-serving systems or the community, develop and test innovations, disseminate effective approaches and interventions, create the infrastructure to sustain and embed those innovations into routine practice, and then evaluate and adjust those innovations as needed to ensure optimal and equitable outcomes:
-
Identify problem, gap or need in the system.
-
Develop or identify research-based innovation.
-
Test innovation to determine effectiveness and feasibility.
-
Disseminate effective innovations widely and embed in statewide system.
-
Sustain innovation with infrastructure and policy.
-
Evaluate effects of innovation on child and/or system outcomes.
-
Adjust to ensure optimal outcomes.
Case examples of our process
A Case Example: Texas
Promoting National Best Practice Standards for Youth Mobile Response
In 2024, CHDI was approached by The Meadows Mental Health Institute in Austin, Texas to support a demonstration project in Texas to expand access to a best practice youth mobile response service. The request was based on CHDI’s successful work to implement a best practice model for youth mobile response in Connecticut: Mobile Crisis Intervention Service (MCIS). CHDI's role in MCIS has been to provide training, technical assistance, data analysis and reporting, and quality improvement services for the lead state agency and its network of community-based MCIS providers.
Our Process
- Identified a system need. In partnership with Meadows, CHDI reviewed data and information identifying a need to add Youth Crisis Outreach Teams (YCOT), a youth-focused mobile response service, to the state’s service array. YCOT is intended to stabilize behavioral health crises, increase access to mental health and substance use services, and reduce unnecessary utilization of hospital emergency departments and juvenile justice involvement.
- Co-developed the model and approach. CHDI, along with partners at the University of Connecticut, reviewed the literature, data, and best practices from across the country to help identify for the first time a set of national best practice standards for youth mobile response and stabilization services. CHDI drew upon these best practices to help Meadows and their partners design the Texas YCOT approach.
-
Tested innovations in real-world settings. CHDI worked with Meadows to design a series of learning opportunities for Texas YCOT providers and other state partners. A major focus of this work was to disseminate knowledge about the best practices and begin to test them at provider sites. CHDI continues to work with Meadows, providers, and other state partners to understand how best to implement those standards in their own communities.
MRSS Consultation
CHDI continues to provide consultation and technical assistance to Meadows and other Texas partners on system design, implementation of best practice model elements, data and quality improvement approaches, and sustainability. As the work continues to expand, CHDI will remain available to ensure implementation of a high-quality mobile response service in Texas that delivers the intended outcomes. We will also help Meadows and other Texas state partners identify existing and new funding opportunities to support the statewide scaling of this new approach, so that it can positively impact more youth and families.
Read about our MRSS Consultation initiatives