Concord, NH – The NH Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) announces the launch of the Children’s Behavioral Health Resource Center website to help families, caregivers, providers and communities get access to the mental health resources children need. Consistent with the Strong as Granite campaign, the Children’s Behavioral Health Resource Center website supports the behavioral health needs of all children, youth and families in New Hampshire.
“Asking for help is not always easy, and when people are ready to seek help, knowing where to begin can be stressful,” said Katja Fox, Director of the DHHS Division of Behavioral Health. “The goal of the Children’s Behavioral Health Resource Center website is to make it easy for families to connect children and youth to the right supports and services at the right time. We hope families and providers will explore the site and the services available for children and families experiencing behavioral health challenges.”
Services are organized into 5 tiers based on needs, ranging from a focus on prevention, assessment and screening, through acute psychiatric hospital care and psychiatric residential treatment. DHHS supports and promotes programs and services that incorporate the Children’s Behavioral Health System of Care values: family and youth driven, community-based, trauma-informed, and culturally and linguistically competent. The Children’s Behavioral Health Resource Center website was developed in partnership with the UNH Institute on Disability and the UNH Institute on Health Policy and Practice.
Since the DHHS Bureau of Children’s Behavioral Health was established in 2016, DHHS has made substantial investments to implement the Children’s Behavioral Health System of Care, including:
- Successfully partnering with providers and key system collaborators to expand early childhood programming;
- Expansions and additions of evidence-based practices embedded within our communities;
- Development of rapid response and mobile crisis response teams (integrating with 988);
- Advancing financial, policy, and programming efforts to ensure the safety and quality of all residential treatment programs;
- Establishing the new Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility at Hampstead Hospital (the first in NH); and
- Extension in the use of the Child Adolescent Needs and Strengths assessment tool to support the needs of youth receiving care.
Additionally, DHHS has expanded the availability of community based services, such as expanded home visiting for early childhood and additional intensive in-home services, to better meet the unique needs of families involved with Child Protection and Juvenile Justice. For information about other DHHS services to support children and families, please visit https://www.dhhs.nh.gov.
If you or someone you know is experiencing mental health symptoms, suicidal thoughts, substance use or other behavioral health concerns, we offer access to trained staff available 24/7 to listen, support and provide the guidance you need without judgment. Please call or text 833-710-6477 for help.
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