June 2004

Is substance abuse treatment a part of the system of care community (SOC) grant funding?

The CMHS-SOC funding requires, but will not pay for the prevention and treatment of non-mental health disorders, for which substance use disorders are a large part of that definition. Many of our youth referred for services will be at risk for, or already have co-occurring substance and mental health disorders. It is essential that our System of Care settings develop the capacity to identify the risk, and help intervene for youth with co-occurring disorders before the problem escalates. Our SOC communities have an opportunity to intervene early and help families with risky associated behaviors such as truancy, early substance use, and possibly thwart development of more delinquent behavior problems such as substance dependence.

The specific language dictating the requirement stated above comes from the current agreement for funding titled: “Cooperative Agreements for the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services Program for Children and their Families” Title: Child Mental Health Initiative

Authority: Part E of Title V Section 561 Public health Service Act

The CMHS-SOC cooperative agreement defines the necessity to build an integrated network of care for mental health and non-mental health services. Our SOC grant communities are charged with developing a family-based and informed network of care for effective services delivery including the: policies, governing structures, systems integration, and interagency collaboration.

The agreement dictates that SOC communities must specify the programmatic and fiscal strategies for incorporating into the individualized service plan the following:

1) Substance abuse treatment services for adolescents with a co-occurring serious emotional disturbance and substance use disorder
2) Substance abuse prevention interventions for pre-adolescents with a serious emotional disturbance
3) Medical services for children with a co-occurring serious emotional disturbance and chronic illness
4) Literacy interventions specific for children with a serious emotional disturbance. p.19

Nonmental health services play an integral part in the individualized services through coordination, memoranda of understanding, and agreement with relevant agencies and providers. These services should be supplied by the participating agencies in the system of care and include, but are not limited to:

…..Substance abuse treatment and prevention services especially for children with co-occurring chronic illnesses (p. 36).