ACF’s Commitment to Behavioral Health

En Español (PDF)

Supporting the behavioral health of children, families, and youth is an essential priority for the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). We see youth and families facing mental health challenges, substance use struggles, and high levels of stress. In partnership with federal, state, tribal, territorial, and local partners, as well as youth and families themselves, we have — through prioritizing actions and investments — further integrated behavioral health support and services  into existing supports for youth and families. This enables us to promote behavioral health, foster recovery, cultivate resilience, and strengthen overall well-being among individuals and communities across the country.

I’m proud of the work ACF has done — and will continue to do — in partnership with all of you to address the President’s Strategy to Address our National Mental Health Crisis and the HHS Roadmap for Behavioral Health Integration . I’d like to highlight in this email some of our work and accomplishments to improve behavioral health for children, youth, and families.

ACF is Listening to and Partnering with Youth, Parents, and Caregivers

ACF is committed to centering and partnering with youth, families, and communities and learning from their experiences and expertise as we transform behavioral health in this country. The ACF team and I have regularly listened to, engaged with, and co-developed several behavioral health resources. These engagements have informed behavioral health activities, policy, and communications to better reach and serve children, youth, parents, and caregivers.

A few examples of ACF’s engagements include:

• Co-developing with SAMHSA and youth and parent leaders a series of free, educational trainings for parents and caregivers about children’s mental health, reaching thousands of families.
• Launching a national survey to hear from youth and families and inform the development of resources for youth and families.
• Engagement through several forums, roundtables, visits, and events in Washington, around the country, and virtually. These events have allowed us to hear from youth and families about their mental health and comprehensive behavioral health experiences and their ideas to improve access to culturally and linguistically relevant behavioral health supports and services.

New ACF Behavioral Health Resources Webpage

As part of this commitment, we recently launched our ACF and Behavioral Health webpage to expand access to resources for communities, parents and caregivers, teens and young adults, tribes, grantees, and service providers. Included online are resources to support the prevention, treatment, and recovery from behavioral health conditions; recognize, manage, and support children’s mental health needs; and address substance use during pregnancy. We have also dedicated a webpage specifically for early childhood behavioral health resources.

I encourage you to share these resources within your networks and to note that near the top center of the webpage is a tool to translate the information into a variety of languages; ACF is committed to promoting language access. In the coming months, we will be making additional changes and adding new resources, including several Spanish language resources.  

Improving Access to Culturally and Linguistically Relevant Behavioral Health Resources

We are working with partners across the federal government to increase access to culturally and linguistically relevant support for youth and families served by ACF programs.  

A few examples of ACF’s efforts to improve access to culturally and linguistically relevant resources include:

• Expanded the number of states and tribes with approved Title IV-E Prevention Programs, supported the review of, and increased the number of eligible programs and services . 
• Developed Dear Colleague Letters highlighting resources related to parent and caregiver loss, children’s mental health  (PDF), early childhood social-emotional development and mental health, and mental health supports for youth of color experiencing homelessness.
• Co-hosted a convening with IHS and SAMHSA on children’s behavioral health in tribal communities, which was attended by over 300 people working with children in AI/AN communities.
• Co-hosted a convening with the CDC on Latino Youth Mental Health to learn about and discuss challenges and approaches to supporting the mental health and well-being of Latino youth and their families. 
• Invested in resource centers, hotlines, and offered technical assistance to support the expansion of community-led support and services.
• Supported the Refugee Mental Health Initiative to support families and children from birth through age 18 and launched a new program to address trauma and related behavioral health issues for our recent Afghan arrivals.
• Advanced cross-cutting mental health efforts in early childhood by enhancing technical assistance and resources to support mental health for young children, families, and staff, including a recently issued overview of opportunities to support the mental health and well-being of the early care and education workforce.
• Expanded training and other resources to support the capacity of states, local, and tribal governments to support the mental health and well-being of people who have experienced violence and trafficking.
• Increased investments of Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA) funding to culturally specific domestic violence and sexual assault community-based organizations serving adults, children, and youth surviving violence, trauma, and abuse. These funds are reaching communities that are often marginalized and without access. This also includes increased investments of $1 million of FVPSA funding to sustain the National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma, and Mental Health that is focused on expanding the capacity of domestic violence programs to implement an accessible, culturally responsive, trauma-informed approach to support the behavioral health and wellbeing of adult, child, and youth survivors nationwide.  

Investing in Innovation Approaches in Children and Youth Mental Health and Resilience

ACF has been a partner in launching the first-ever HHS Children and Youth Resilience Challenge , which is investing in innovative, community-led solutions to advance the mental health of children and youth. Later this month, ACF will be announcing finalists for Phase 1 of the Challenge to support the mental health of children.  

Last year, we partnered with Instituto del Desarrollo de la Juventud and the U.S. Census Bureau to develop new solutions to enhance children’s resilience to adversity in Puerto Rico  (PDF). The collaborative process led by The Opportunity Project brought together youth, tech, academic, and community partners to address the challenge by building public-facing products informed by open federal data.

ACF values and welcomes your partnership to support behavioral health of children, youth, and families. We are in this work together.

With thanks for your leadership,

January Contreras

Assistant Secretary