Children's mental health other DHS programs

DHS staff and grants support a variety of children's mental health programs areas, including the following:

Collaboratives

Children’s Mental Health and Family Services Collaboratives create community partnerships to ensure services and systems more effectively meet the needs of children, youth and families. Collaboratives focus on promising prevention and early intervention strategies to foster well-being and resilience. See a map and directory of collaboratives.
Early childhood mental health services

Early Childhood Mental Health Grants provide mental health services to young children, ages birth to five, with a focus on uninsured and underinsured families. DHS awards grants to many communities to create comprehensive mental health systems and services to meet the needs of young children and their families. See a map of early childhood mental health grants.
Evidence-based practices (EBPs)

DHS ensures children and youth receive excellent mental health care by promoting evidence-based practices to improve the quality and quantity of clinical treatment services available to families and mental health providers.

Evidence-based practices rely on research to inform choices for effective courses of treatment. A family and provider can combine their experiences and expertise with evidence to decide what would work best for a child with concern for the child's characteristics, circumstances and cultures.
School-linked behavioral health services
DHS grants support school-linked behavioral health services throughout Minnesota. These services:
- Increase accessibility for children and youth who are uninsured or underinsured
- Improve outcomes for children and youth with a mental health or substance use disorder diagnosis
- Improve identification of behavioral health issues for children and youth
For more information please visit the School-linked Behavioral Health Services website.