In November 2023, CHDI released a strategic plan to serve as a blueprint for strengthening Connecticut's behavioral health workforce for children and families.

CHDI's Jason Lang, Ph.D. and Aleece Kelly, MPP recently presented to state legislators on recommendations to address the ongoing workforce shortage in the children's behavioral health field. The shortage - a nationwide issue - has coincided with increased demand for behavioral health services, leading to long wait lists and delays in care for children, youth, and families.

Lang and Kelly are co-authors of the strategic plan to guide the state in strengthening the workforce. They shared research on the root causes of the shortage, discussed the impact of the shortage on families and providers, and highlighted key recommendations from the strategic plan. Watch the full presentation on CT-N.

On January 29th, CT Insider published an op-ed by CHDI President & CEO Jeff Vanderploeg, Ph.D. highlighting the key issues facing our state's behavioral health workforce for children and families.

The piece also explores strategies the state could use - from raising insurance reimbursement rates to expanding support for those entering the field - to ease the immediate shortage and build a more sustainable workforce for the future.

The Connecticut School-Based Diversion Initiative (SBDI) works with schools and districts to reduce suspensions, expulsions, and arrests and improve connections to behavioral health services and support for students.

On average, SBDI schools have reduced court referrals by 29% and connected 55% more students to behavioral health services. Since the initiative began, 73 schools in 26 districts have participated.

We are actively recruiting new schools and districts for the 2024-25 school year! To learn how your school can participate, visit ctsbdi.org or contact Elaine Mancini at emancini@chdi.org.

Launching this month, CHDI's new blog series will take a closer look at key issues facing Connecticut's behavioral health workforce for children and families - and explore strategies the state can use to ease the shortage and build a sustainable workforce for the future.

Read the introductory post below for an overview of the issues, and be sure to follow CHDI on social media (on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Threads) for the rest of the series.

Future topics will include insurance reimbursement rates, short-term strategies, the importance of retaining experienced clinicians, why this is an equity issue, and more.

Chief Program Officer Jason Lang, Ph.D. is co-author of a new study published in this month's Journal of Traumatic Stress that examined the effects of trauma screening in the Connecticut child welfare system.

The researchers hypothesized that incorporating trauma screening into the mandatory evaluation that occurs when children are removed from their homes would (1) increase the early identification of trauma-related symptoms and (2) increase referrals to and use of trauma-focused, evidence-based treatments.

In early January, Jeana Bracey, Ph.D., Associate Vice President of School and Community Initiatives, was a guest on John Voket's For the People radio show (Connoisseur Media) to talk about the important role of schools in identifying and helping students with behavioral health concerns. She also discussed a new federal grant that will provide more support for comprehensive school mental health systems across Connecticut.

Bracey also mentioned the Connect4Families toolkit, which CHDI and our partners in the Connecting to Care initiative developed last year to help pediatric primary care providers, schools, families, and behavioral health providers in Connecticut communicate and collaborate more easily.

In this video, pediatricians and experts explain why screening for trauma in pediatric primary care settings makes sense. Any child-serving staff in pediatric primary care can learn how to effectively screen children for trauma in our free, online Trauma ScreenTIME Pediatric Primary Care Course.

Senior Associate Christine Hauser, LCSW, LADC recently joined Access Mental Health for Youth's monthly "Clinical Conversations" series for pediatric primary care providers. She provided an introductory training on how pediatric providers can use the Adolescent Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (A-SBIRT) approach to recognize and respond to youth using substances. Watch the training recording here.

Learn more about CHDI's work to expand the use of A-SBIRT in Connecticut.

Save the date for the UConn School of Social Work Innovations Institute's 2025 Training Institutes: July 8 - 10, 2025 in DC! Proposal submissions will begin this spring. Sign up for updates on the Innovations Institute's website.

Our partners at the National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH) have released newly updated School Mental Health Quality Guides. The guides can help school mental health systems advance the quality of their services and supports, in alignment with the School Health Assessment and Performance Evaluation (SHAPE) System.

CHDI provides no-cost technical assistance and guidance to Connecticut districts and schools interested in using SHAPE to assess, strengthen, or develop their comprehensive school mental health systems. Want to join the 165 schools in 55 districts across Connecticut already engaged in SHAPE? Contact our School Mental Health team.

In late January, Chief Program Officer Jason Lang, Ph.D. presented at The Chadwick Center's 39th Annual International Conference on Child Maltreatment in San Diego. 

Lang and colleague Dr. Monica Fitzgerald of the University of Colorado - Boulder (pictured here with Dr. Lisa Conradi of The Chadwick Center) provided an overview of important new research on childhood trauma and children’s behavioral health from the past year.

After more than four and a half years of dedicated work, Project Coordinator Lori DiPietro, MPH left CHDI at the end of January to pursue an exciting opportunity at the Connecticut Department of Public Health.

During her tenure at CHDI, Lori made many important contributions to our evidence-based practice (EBP) and outpatient behavioral health initiatives. She also coordinated our annual EBP conference, helped expand TF-CBT training, and led the EBP certification process across multiple models.

Lori will be greatly missed, and we wish her the best in her new position!

CHDI is still accepting applications for a one-year postdoctoral fellowship to begin in summer 2024. The Fellow will work on one or more initiatives focused on improving children’s behavioral health in Connecticut, with an emphasis on working at the systems, policy, and practice levels.

The Child Health and Development Institute (CHDI) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing effective and integrated system, practice, and policy solutions that result in equitable and optimal behavioral health and well-being for children, youth, and families in Connecticut and beyond.

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