Connecting for Kids (C4K)
Connecting for Kids (C4K)
Linking Critical Systems of Care to Support Children and Teens’ Physical, Behavioral, and Social-Emotional Health
Our Mission
Our C4K mission is to enhance interprofessional collaboration between critical systems of care to better address the physical health, behavioral health, and academic needs of children and teens.
C4K Collaborative Dialogue
Interested in Learning More?
If you're interested in learning more or bringing a C4K Dialogue to your community, please complete this survey, and and a member of our C4K team will be in touch with you soon.
Connecting for Kids (C4K) is a community-developed initiative aimed at fostering effective collaboration across school teams, primary care practices, and parents/caregivers to support child and adolescent behavioral health needs.
Our 1-2 hour guided, virtual dialogue offers an accessible and effective model that brings together primary care teams, school teams, families, and other youth-serving systems to:
- Develop a shared mission to support youth behavioral health
- Reflect on strengths and gaps in existing communication and partnership
- Generate ideas for streamlined coordination and communication across their systems
- Identify and commit to actionable next steps to improve cross-sector collaborations
~School professional
Those Who Might Engage in a Dialogue
- Primary care teams (physician, practice/clinic manager, nurses, behavioral health providers, case managers)
- School teams (student-support administrators, school mental health staff, nursing staff member, teacher)
- Parents/caregivers
- School-based health center teams
- School-based mental health clinic teams (clinicians, psychiatrists, case managers, nurses, youth/family)
- Other youth-serving organizations (e.g., Office of Mental Health, parent/caregiver groups)
- Community-based mental health clinic teams
Impact
Individuals who engaged in dialogues (e.g., primary care and school professionals) reported:
- A greater sense of connection with the other system
- Recognition of shared goals
- Enhanced sense of trust and respect between the systems
- Increased knowledge and attitudes related to better collaboration between systems
- More frequent referrals to behavioral health supports in the other system involved in their dialogues
- Increased communication with the other systems involved in their dialogues
- Changes in collaborative actions, such as:
- Individuals reaching out more regularly to identified point people in the other system
- School staff initiating outreach to PCP when working with student with behavioral health needs
- Primary care teams more regularly asking for key contacts within patients’ school teams
- System-level changes:
- Developing new workflows to improve communication across systems (e.g., between school teams and primary care teams)
- Cross-sector teams developing documents to better understand the other system (e.g., helping primary care understand Special Education supports & processes)
- Primary care identifying a specific person in the practice to triage school calls